GEOGRAPHY AT THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION 475 



whole field of physical geography there must be selected those facts 

 that are of the greatest value; these facts must be arranged so that 

 progress is assured without over-repetition, and must be related to 

 the conditions of which they are the causes, so that the knowledge of 

 both causes and consequences is enriched through such a causal 

 study. A course of stud}'' planned along these lines is now in opera- 

 tion in the Horace Mann School of Teachers College, and is proving 

 itself rational and effective. The more important facts of physical 

 geography are developed by the middle of the sixth year in school, 

 as the natural outgrowth of a study of life conditions. In the re- 

 maining work of the geography course physical geography is made 

 fundamental, and good history and good geography will result. By 

 the end of the eighth year the pupils have gained a good insight into 

 the earth sciences and have had such training in scientific thinking 

 that no more geography work is advisable until toward the end of 

 the secondary course. By the third or fourth year of the high school 

 course it is possible to take up a study of physical geograpliy that 

 answers the requirements in physiography for entrance to Colum- 

 bia and Harvard Colleges. Thus the arrangement of geograi)hy 

 below the college, that Professor Davis has recently stated would 

 be in fashion twenty or thirty years hence,* has been proved 

 a very successful possibilitv. The primary essential of such ele- 

 mentary school work is that the teachers, who cannot be experts in 

 all things, shall at least know more geography than their pu})ils are 

 expected to know on entrance upon a secondary course. This neces- 

 sity may be acquired at the end of another generation, but progress 

 will unfortunatel}'' ))e slow. 



GEOGRAPHY AT THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION 



Geogra])hy occupies a much more consjiicuous place in the pro- 

 ceedings of the British Association for the Advancement of Science 

 than in those of the Ainerican Association. There is never any lack 

 of valuable papers to be presented, and almost every meeting has its 

 special attraction in the fact that some newly returned explorer avails 

 himself of the opportunity of narrating before a large and distin- 

 guished audience tlie story of his <liscoveries and adventures. 



* I'liy.sioal Geography in the II Ik'' School, School Uovicw, Sept. ami Oct., I'Jdo. 



