APPERCEPTION IN GEOGRAPHY 195 



In a Brooklyn school the excursion and field lesson precede the work 

 on the map. The cit}^ is the unit upon which we begin our course of 

 reasoning. By means of concepts obtained from observations of home 

 surroundings we are to gain the ideas of conditions that have devel- 

 oped other great centers of population. In New York we have before 

 us a great commercial as well as a great manufacturing center. Upon 

 these two conditions depends the dense po])ulation of Manhattan 

 Island and the surrounding country. 



Density of Poiyidation. — An afternoon excursion across the bay on a 

 boat of the Brooklyn annex furnishes the facts to be considered in 

 connection with the map of density of population. The island of 

 Manhattan, with its miles of water front, and the several cities grouped 

 about the waters of bay, river, and strait are noted. The signs on 

 the piers and the flags on the ships show the extent of the commerce. 

 Beside the commercial advantages of New York, the conditions of 

 manufacturing are also considered to obtain a proper understanding 

 of the density of population in manufacturing towns. For this pur- 

 pose we select a shoe factory, where the different parts of the article 

 are being worked upon by many people. The manager tells us how 

 many hands he employs. These facts are afterward considered in a 

 conversational lesson, where attention is directed to the many fam- 

 ilies dependent upon this factory and to the needs of each individual 

 thereof. 



Physical Features. — Another excursion up the Hudson to the Pal- 

 isades helps to explain the dependence of density upon the i)hysio- 

 graphical features. 



The only text Ijook used is Longman's School Atlas. The home 

 lessons following the excursions are based upon map 16 of that atlas, 

 entitled " Density of Population in United States." The pupils find 

 the densit_y in southeastern New York and note other localities having 

 similar density. They comj^are the situation of such places with 

 that of New York Cit3% using map 11 for a better understanding of 

 the physical features. Then they find on map 16 regions having a 

 low density of po])ulation and note their physical conditions. 



Comijosition. — A composition on population based upon the facts 

 gathered on the excursion and from the map is next prepared with 

 much careful attention and is preserved in the pupil's note book. 

 This n)a3' be illustrated by pictures collected by the children to show 

 conditions of life accompanying the difierent degrees of density. A 

 map colored to show region of greatest and least density further 

 empliasizes the lessons and com[)letes the subject. 



