Juke 17, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



939 



furthermore carefully study the capacity 

 and the limitations of verbal description, 

 and thus come to perceive that his task in 

 setting forth the features of a district in 

 words is altogether different from that of 

 the cartographer in setting forth the facts 

 graphically. Cartographic representation 

 permits, and indeed requires, the indica- 

 tion of every element of form that is 

 reached by its scale, and gives to each ele- 

 ment a definite location and dimension. 

 Hence the cartographic representation of 

 geographical features is very definite. 

 The eye, when first looking over a map, 

 glances from part to part, and apprehends 

 chiefly those elements which by repeated 

 occurrence give character to the district, 

 and those which by reason of exceptional 

 peculiarities stand forth from the others; 

 afterwards, special parts of the map may 

 be more closely examined. On the other 

 hand, verbal description can hardly be 

 understood unless the reader follows the 

 order of presentation chosen by the writer. 

 The description will be fatiguing if it at- 

 tempts to state the location and size of 

 every element of form; it is therefore best 

 employed to state the generalized char- 

 acteristics which the eye would perceive 

 in looking over a map, thus giving first 

 emphasis to prevailing features, and only 

 secondary emphasis to less important 

 special features. After the leading facts 

 are thus presented, more elaborate des- 

 cription may well follow, with due atten- 

 tion to what may be called "local color." 

 Inasmuch as verbal presentation is nec- 

 essarily linear, one item following another, 

 emphasis is automatically given to those 

 items which come first ; subordinate rank is 

 indicated for such items as are assigned a 

 later place; but on a map there is no be- 

 ginning or end; the whole surface is pre- 

 sented simultaneously, and the student may 

 first take up any part he pleases. If any 



one Avishes to learn minute details as to the 

 length or direction of certain small 

 streams, the location and altitude of hills, 

 and so on, he can best find them on a map ; 

 but if he wants a well-phrased characteri- 

 zation of a district, he will be best helped 

 by a verbal description, on a scale appro- 

 priate to the occasion. Hence the impor- 

 tance of giving conscious practise to the 

 preparation of verbal descriptions of a 

 given district or region on different scales ; 

 one might be ten lines long; another 

 might fill a page; a third, a chapter; a 

 fourth, a volume. A geographer who pro- 

 poses to make himself proficient in his sci- 

 ence ought to practise himself as thor- 

 oughly in writing descriptions on different 

 verbal scales as in dra-nang maps on differ- 

 ent graphic scales. 



THE STYLE OF VEEBAL DESCEIPTION 



Maps differ in style as well as in scale. 

 A wall map on a given scale is coarse-tex- 

 tured, so that certain leading features may 

 be seen across a room. A map of the same 

 region, and on the same scale, divided into 

 sheets and bound in an atlas for library 

 use, is crowded with minute details of fine 

 texture. "Verbal descriptions also may vary 

 in style as well as in scale. For example : 

 the first account of the dissected coastal 

 plain on the Adriatic border of Italy may 

 be regarded as of medium scale and of 

 technical style ; the several following para- 

 graphs, in which the same ideas are pre- 

 sented in more general language, is on 

 larger scale, so far as space is concerned, 

 but as it is of popular rather than of tech- 

 nical style, it really adds no new facts, 

 nothing but ease of apprehension to the 

 smaller scale description ; hence it may be 

 compared to a wall map, in being offered 

 to ready imderstanding. On the other 

 hand, if the increased space had been given 

 to a continuation of the technical descrip- 



