June 17, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



941? 



readers; but, on the contrary, that small 

 artificial features, such as little villages, 

 ought to be located in relation to the previ- 

 ously described natural features, to which 

 they stand in some reasonable relation. 

 This principle should surely be carried oi^t 

 by those who believe that the location of 

 artificial features exhibits some response to 

 physiographic environment. Likewise, an 

 individual hill or stream should not be 

 first indicated by its name, which is the 

 least natural thing about it, and which is 

 unknown to the reader and therefore of no 

 assistance to him in his reading. Such 

 features shoiild be introduced in general 

 terms, by first describing the whole group 

 of features to which they belong, and then 

 singling out such members of the group 

 for location and name as may be desired. 



It is of prime importance to the writer 

 to test his own description as he prepares 

 it; to determine whether his manner of 

 announcing the most general features is 

 thoroughly effective; whether the order in 

 which he introduces secondary and tertiary- 

 items is the most appropriate. Practise 

 added to close scrutiny can alone develop 

 proficiency. On the other hand, when a 

 carefully prepared description reaches the 

 reader, he must exercise a considerable de- 

 gree of attention and skill, in order to 

 apprehend the full significance of the 

 writer's terse phrases; and he must use a 

 skilful imagination in the process of visual- 

 izing the forms, large and small, as they 

 are introduced by the writer. Here again, 

 nothing but practise can produce profi- 

 ciency ; and all this suggests that the train- 

 ing of a would-be geographer ought to in- 

 clude conscious, well-planned exercises in 

 all these processes of observing, general- 

 izing, writing, reading and visualizing, just 

 as surely as it should include exercises in 

 surveying and map-drawing. 



GRAPHIC AIDS IN GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION 



The best geographical descriptions fall 

 short of satisfying the reader if they are 

 purely verbal; they ought to be supple- 

 mented by graphic devices wherever pos- 

 sible. A small scale map may be intro- 

 duced to great advantage on an early page, 

 in order to exhibit general locations ; hence, 

 well known as Italy may be, the places-, 

 above mentioned in connection with my 

 Italian excursion are probably identified 

 more easily and more promptly than they- 

 would be otherwise, by means of the out- 

 line map. Fig. 1, prepared in an hour, here 

 reduced to small scale, on which our route- 

 may be followed and on which the Aneona 

 district and the valley of the Lamone above- 

 Faenza may be quickly found. A larger- 

 scale map may, if available, be appropri- 

 ately provided to accompany more detailed 

 descriptions; a good purpose is served in 

 this respect by the elaborate sheets of the 

 Italian topographical map, 1:100,000, al- 

 ready mentioned, which clearly exhibit the 

 mature dissection and the even truncation 

 of the coastal plain, south of Aneona, and; 

 the strand plain by which the former sea 

 cliffs are now separated from the shore 

 line. Photographs and sketches serve to il- 

 luminate the text; but in recent years pho- 

 tographs have been rather recklessly used, 

 particularly when they are printed in a 

 very blurred condition on rough paper. 

 Sketches are in many cases more service- 

 able, even though less accurate, than pho- 

 tograplis, because they show what the ob- 

 server wishes them to show. As a subor- 

 dinate matter, let me add in this connection 

 certain details that are often overlooked, 

 if one may judge by many illustrations in 

 scientific journals.' First, the size of the 

 page on which a figure is to be printed 

 ought to be learned before the figure is, 

 drawn. Decision should then be made as 

 to whether the figure shall occupy the: 



