940 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXI. No. 807 



tion for the purpose of bringing in many 

 details, the larger scale of description 

 might then be compared to a larger scale of 

 a map for library use, in which many 

 small features are indicated. Hence style 

 as well as scale requires consideration ; and 

 in acquiring the art of geographical de- 

 scription, conscious experiment and prac- 

 tise should be given to various styles as 

 well as to various scales. 



From all this it must appear clearly 

 enough that the preparation of an effective 

 verbal description, after all necessary field 

 studies have been made, will require the 

 careful consideration of several different 

 points. The style to be adopted should be 

 first determined according to whether the 

 description shall be technical, for trained 

 geographers; or popular, for intelligent, 

 mature, non-technical readers; elementary, 

 for young beginners. Second, considera- 

 tion must be given to the scale or space 

 permissible, according to the opportunity 

 for publication and to the relation which 

 the description bears to the rest of the 

 volume in which it may be only a part. 

 In view of the style and the scale as thus 

 determined, the critical selection of certain 

 items to be included and of others to be 

 excluded may come next; and with this 

 should go the careful determination of the 

 order in which the included items shall be 

 presented. It has already been shown that 

 various items concerning location, dimen- 

 sion, attitude and direction of subordinate 

 features had best be omitted fi-om verbal 

 descriptions, because they have their better 

 place on a map ; if included even in a large- 

 scale verbal description of technical style, 

 they will make it unreadable. It is chiefly 

 the generalized treatment of dominant or 

 of recurrent elements that deserve verbal 

 statement, with subordinate place for the 

 more significant exceptional features. 



THE ORDER OF PRESENTATION 



As to order of presentation, a whole 

 essay might be written. I shall here 

 emphasize only certain leading principles. 

 The first is, to present the main idea in the 

 first sentence ; to give at once, at the very 

 outset, a general block-statement for the 

 district concerned. The reader will then 

 most promptly apprehend its general na- 

 ture, most easily follow the explanatory 

 paragraphs as they are expanded, and most 

 readily appreciate subordinate features, 

 item by item, as they are introduced in 

 orderly advance. The case is utterly dif- 

 ferent from that of a novel or a play, in 

 which it is appropriate enough to conceal 

 the plot till the end is approached; here 

 the reader or listener enjoys being kept in 

 the dark while the story is developed. But 

 in a scientific essay, the reader ought, con- 

 trary to common practise, to be made aware 

 of the end at the beginning, particularly if 

 the explanatory method of description is 

 employed; so that as the description ad- 

 vances, the leading explanatory ideas as 

 stated in the first paragraph may be con- 

 stantly confronted with the evidence that 

 bears upon them, and so that the smaller 

 features may be immediately placed in 

 their proper position with respect to the 

 general scheme. Narrative descriptions, in 

 which items are presented in the order of ' 

 encounter in the field, may be appropriate 

 as a means of recording the work of hasty 

 reconnoissances, but when the narrative 

 method is employed in the presentation of 

 more careful studies, the most that can be 

 said of it is that, as far as scientific geog- 

 raphy is concerned, it is a very easily ac- 

 quired and unambitious method. 



It has already been pointed out that the 

 location of natural features should not be 

 indicated by means of their relation to 

 small artificial features, such as little vil- 

 lages, which must be unknown to most 



