June 4, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



867 



toila in 1895, by Eoman Oberhummer, of 

 Miincben. Many interesting items of geo- 

 graphic news were brought back by these 

 travelers, but they will not be enumerated 

 here, for this sketch cannot go into many 

 ■details. Let us, therefore, note the meth- 

 ods of the present explorations as contrasted 

 with those of the past. "When there were ex- 

 tensive areas of unesj)lored territory it was 

 most inviting for an ambitious man to at- 

 tempt to cover as much area as possible. 

 How thin a covering of the ground was 

 made by these early travelers is well known 

 bj'' any pne who has tried to find out some 

 particular thing from the accounts of their 

 journeys. The modern traveler must study 

 in more detail a given area of smaller di- 

 mensions, or take up some special problem 

 in a larger area. An example is seen in the 

 minute ethnographic studies made bj' Dr. 

 Meyer in the interior of Brazil. 



In America one is apt to look upon the 

 work of the schools in Prussia as so far 

 ahead of American schools in methods of 

 teaching geography as to be almost a 

 model to be followed ; but the exceedingly 

 suggestive paper of Oberlehrer Fischer, of 

 Berlin, made his audience feel that there 

 was much cause for instant improvement in 

 the work of the teachers of geography in 

 Prussia. The verj'^ valuable statistical 

 tables presented by Mr. Fischer will shortly 

 be published in a separate pamphlet with 

 the text. Professor Dr. W. Sievers out- 

 lined a plan of extended excursions with 

 students to teach them geographj^ by a 

 closer examination of typical forms in 

 various regions. For the universities of 

 middle Germany he suggested three trips 

 in successive years, one to the coast, the 

 second to the highland, and the third to 

 the Alps. Professor Dr. J. Palacky , of Prag, 

 spoke of the importance of an herbarium 

 arranged according to geographical distri- 

 bution of plants for the teaching of geo- 

 graphic botany. 



One morning was given up to the discus- 

 sion of the Geophysical problems of earth- 

 quakes and magnetism. Professors Ger- 

 land, of Strassburg, and Supan, of Gotha, 

 led the former, and Drs. Ad. Schmidt, of 

 Gotha, and E. Naumann, of Miinchen, the 

 latter. Many others took part in the dis- 

 cussion. Professor Supan outlined a plan 

 for the more systematic observation and re- 

 cording of the local and more widespread 

 earthquakes. Governmental aid is to be 

 asked in the carrj'ing out of some such 

 plan. These problems bordering upon 

 physics and geology would hardly be con- 

 sidered geographic in America. As one 

 man expressed it at Jena, " The subjects 

 of earthquakes and magnetism are con- 

 sidered under geography in Germany only 

 because they belong nowhere else." Many 

 other subjects from various sciences maybe 

 made geographic by considering them in re- 

 lation to their distribution over the earth. 



There were three papers in the field of 

 biologic geography : ' Australian Fauna,' 

 by Professor Dr. Semon, of Jena ; ' The 

 distribution of the various animals used in 

 transportation and their dependence upon 

 geographic conditions,' bj^ Dr. Ed. Hahn, 

 of Liibeck ; ' The animals upon the island 

 Borkam, particularly in regard to impor- 

 tant observations for the geographic distri- 

 bution of animals,' by Professor Dr. O. 

 Schneider, of Dresden. Professor Semon 

 presented tables showing the proportions 

 of species living only in Australia and those 

 living also in other neighboring lands. Dr. 

 Hahn made a most interesting presentation 

 of the marked geographic control shown in 

 the distribution of the various beasts of 

 burden in use in different parts of the world. 

 Professor Schneider pointed out the impor- 

 tance of making a thorough study of the 

 species inhabiting the Frisian islands be- 

 longing to Germany, before the same are 

 connected with the mainland artificiallj^, as 

 is contemplated by the government. 



