210 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 345. 



smothered in detail. But to know what 

 the earth is we must know what the earth 

 has been. The story of the planet and the 

 life it has sustained is prerequisite to a 

 complete understanding of the earth sci- 

 ences and of the life sciences as well. 



As an educational instrument geology has 

 ^the advantage of concentration and homo- 

 geneity. If, lik-e mathematics or physics, it 

 lacks the warm human interest, the appli- 

 cations of geography to human life, yet its 

 current is not shoaled by division into 

 numerous channels. If either physical 

 geography or geology must be omitted from 

 our crowded high-school courses, let it not 

 be geology, the more fundamental, the more 

 coherent, the more educative of the two. 



What then should be the place and se- 

 quence of the earth sciences in secondary 

 programs ? Can they be arranged so as to 

 include the outlines of all, and yet without 

 repetition? It seems to me that certain 

 changes are desirable to secure this end. I 

 should like to see nature study so enlarged 

 in the lower grades that the common 

 physiographic processes early become fa- 

 miliar. There is an evident trend toward 

 the enlargement of the physical geography 

 with which our advanced geographies are 

 now introduced. To me this seems the 

 proper place for the study, but while the 

 treatment of all essential forms and proc- 

 esses which bear directly on the life and 

 work of man may be expanded, all matter 

 irrelevant to this should here be omitted. 

 I should like to see the areal and descrip- 

 tive geography which follows so enlarged 

 that it will take in the American high- 

 school the place it holds in the German 

 Mealschulen and Gymnasia. Each geographic 

 unit, each region of our country, each 

 national domain may then be treated 

 thoroughly in all departments of the 

 science. "With the physical environment 

 everywhere made basal, we need not fear to 

 give anthropic geography the largest pos- 



sible place. It may be that much might be 

 brought in which a strict definition of 

 geography would exclude. But with due 

 selection of material, with grasp of princi- 

 ples, with historic perspective, and es- 

 pecially with a thorough knowledge of 

 physiographic controls, the wise teacher of 

 geography can afford to take as his motto, 

 I consider nothing alien to myself that re- 

 lates to man. The extension of anthropic 

 geography, however, cannot be brought 

 about by discussion, or criticism, or the 

 writing of text-books. It must come in 

 precisely the same way as has the extension 

 of physical geography — by scientific re- 

 search. It awaits the masters who will 

 some time do for the sciences relating to 

 man what geology is doing for the science 

 of land forms. 



The proper place, then, for physical geog- 

 raphy is a place preliminary to the areal 

 geography which applies its principles and 

 consequences to special regions. To re- 

 view it later as a separate study would 

 then seem unnecessary. Instead, let the 

 course in the earth sciences be concluded 

 by meteorology and geology. The earth 

 sciences may thus be so closely articulated 

 as to form the vertebral column of secondary 

 scientific instruction. So close is their touch 

 with human life, so thorough and compre- 

 hensive is their discipline, so simple, so 

 natural, so rational, and so real is their 

 culture, that their extension only awaits 

 their connection into one continuous line of 



study. 



William Haemon ISTorton. 

 CoKNELL College, Iowa. 



PBOFESSOB FBAA8 ON THE AQUEOUS VS. 



JEOLIAN DEPOSITION OF THE WHITE 



BIVEB OLIGOCENE OF S. DAKOTA. 



A SPECIAL expedition of the United States 

 Geological Survey into the Bad Lands of 

 South Dakota was led by N. H. Bar- 

 ton, of the Survey, assisted by J. B. 



