472 THE RATIONAL ELEMENT IN GEOGRAPHY 



systematic development of land forms. Some idea of the changes 

 that land forms slowly suffer should be given with the most 

 elementary teaching. Streams should be recognized as not con- 

 sisting of water alone, but of water that bears along the waste of 

 the land. The slow crumbling of rocks and the formation of soil 

 under the attack of the weather, the slow movement of the soil 

 cap by washing and creeping, and the slow changes of form that 

 result from weathering and wasting should all become familiar 

 in early school years. A child need not wait till he studies 

 chemistry and mineralogy to recognize that iron rusts and rocks 

 weather ; but when chemistry and mineralogy are reached he 

 will gain a fuller understanding of these processes. He need 

 not wait for a formal course in geology to learn that rock waste 

 washes and creeps down hill, for this topic is as essentially geo- 

 graphical as the movement of rivers, ocean currents, and winds. 

 He may very early be convinced that the earth has existed 

 through a long period of time, for the changes of form that he 

 soon comes to appreciate must have required ages for their ac- 

 complishment : great periods of time thus become as familiarly 

 associated with the earth as great distances through space. An 

 excellent introduction to geology is thus gained through phys- 

 ical geography, but a true geographical flavor is retained by 

 always considering processes of change as a means of explaining 

 existing form rather than an end of study in themselves. 



When the student has grasped the idea that existing land forms 

 are the product of changes worked by ordinary processes on 

 earlier forms he should begin the systematic study of land forms. 

 The school grade, the school equipment, the school surroundings, 

 the text book, and, above all, the teacher should determine 

 whether this more advanced branch of geography should be set 

 forth in one way or another. It maybe presented inductively, be- 

 ginning with local examples in the home neighborhood, going on 

 through a chosen series of forms illustrated by models, maps, and 

 pictures, and thus gradually building up broad generalizations 

 that will serve as guides for observation, explanation, and descrip- 

 tion in all parts of the world. Or the subject may be presented 

 deductively, expanding from simple ideal cases to examples of 

 greater and greater complexity until the systematic scheme em- 

 braces a wide variety of types, all of which receive verification 

 when confronted in due order with examples of actual land forms. 

 But in either case the student must*go on from the simple cor- 

 relations observed between the minor elements of local forms in 



