August 9, 1901.] 



SCIENCE 



207 



parent ' Legons de geographie physique,' is 

 geomorphology pure and simple from be- 

 ginning to end. Is this distinguished geol- 

 ogist of France biased by his profession ? 

 Well, here then is Boulangier, who in his 

 ' Traite de geographie physique ' reassures 

 his readers that the author is not a geologist, 

 and still defines his subject as ' the method- 

 ical and rational study of the surface 

 forms of the planet.' Wagner excludes 

 from our science both anthropic and biotic 

 geography, while Supan admits, of the two, 

 only the latter. Davis has given us under 

 the name of physical geography the most 

 complete and luminous treatise on land 

 forms in the language, in which, however, 

 there are everywhere introduced appli- 

 cations of physical conditions to the life of 

 plant, animal and man — matter of great 

 value usually omitted in European texts. 



So rapidly, so lusty and so big has geo- 

 morphology grown that it has been suggested 

 by Professor Dryer that it aims to play the 

 part of the young cuckoo and oust from the 

 nest the remainder of the geographical 

 brood. It is scarcely of age, and yet the 

 science of land forms has already rejuven- 

 ated geology and rationalized the domain 

 of geography. Geomorphology is the child 

 of geology and geography, and it inherits 

 its father's strength and its mother's beauty. 

 From geography it brings the ' half artistic ' 

 description of the features of the earth and 

 their distribution ; from geology it brings 

 the reasoned processes of their formation. 

 Just now it seems to be an educational 

 question as to which of the parents the child 

 should be given in keeping. Should land 

 forms be taught in high- schools chiefly as 

 physical geography or as geology ? This is 

 perhaps the most important question raised 

 by my subject. It involves the relations 

 of the two sciences and their educational 

 values. 



The overlap-land of geomorphology may 

 be claimed by geology with as sure a right 



as any of its other provinces, such as paleon- 

 tology. It was by geologists that it was ex- 

 plored. The Committee of Fifteen accredits 

 the advance in scientific geography the last 

 few decades to the work of geographical 

 societies, and to a limited extent this is 

 surely true, in Great Britain especially. 

 And yet, as one of the foremost British geog- 

 raphers, H. R. Mill, has stated, it is ' the 

 recent work of three geologists, Penck, 

 Davis and Lapparent,' that ' has brought 

 this aspect of the relation between geog- 

 raphy and geology boldly to the front.' 

 Without question it is by geologists that the 

 science of land forms has been created. The 

 list of the founders and leaders of the Amer- 

 ican school of physiographic geology, whose 

 primacy is so generally admitted, is quite 

 too long for mention, but I cannot omit the 

 names of Powell, Lesley, Gilbert, Davis, 

 Dutton, McGee, Chamberlin, Eussell and 

 Tarr. How large, also, have been the con- 

 tributions of foreign geologists, such as Eam- 

 sey and Geikie, Richthofen, Suess, Heim 

 and Walther, Noe, Margerie and Lapparent. 

 If some of these, as Penck and Davis — to 

 the latter of whom Lapparent justly at- 

 tributes ' the preponderating influence in 

 the development of the new conceptions' — 

 are officially known as professors of physical 

 geography, they belong, notwithstanding, 

 to the brotherhood of the hammer. 



The attention of geology was early di- 

 verted from the study of land forms, but it 

 brings on its return a wealth of material 

 which compensates amply for its absence. 

 The reports of the U. S. Geological Survey 

 contain a body of physiographic information 

 and doctrine unequaled in the publications 

 of any scientific society. Our recent State 

 surveys show the splendid results of the ap- 

 plication of the methods of the geologist to. 

 the study of reliefs, as in the work of Salis- 

 bury in New Jersey, Calvin in Iowa, and 

 Marbut in Missouri. The new geology de- 

 scribes the forms of the land with a pre- 



