DISCIPLINARY VALUE OF GEOGRAPHY 235 



the speaker in the introductory summary. If there is any doubt in 

 this matter, it is for the speaker skilfully to devise a plan by which 

 difficult or novel matters shall not be too soon or too rapidly presented. 



Especial care should be taken regarding the use of local names in 

 regional descriptions. It is of no avail, it is indeed confusing to an 

 audience, if a speaker uses the name of an unknown village as a means 

 of indicating the locality of some natural feature, such as a cliff, or a 

 bay. The speaker may truly, by the frequent mention of the local 

 names of distant places, show a great familiarity with that aspect of 

 his subject, but he will at the same time show little comprehension of 

 the small value which such names have for his hearers. Names that 

 are generally known, such as Apennines, Nile, Titicaca, may of course 

 be used without introduction, as guides to smaller features in their 

 neighborhood; but it would be a mistake to say that near Brisighella 

 the valley of the Lamone is of incised meandering form, for few hear- 

 ers can be assumed to know where so unimportant a village and so small 

 a river lie. Local features, natural or artificial, should therefore be 

 first introduced in terms of their relation to large natural features ; and 

 only when thus properly located should their names be added. Fur- 

 thermore, if allusion may be here made to a relatively trivial matter, 

 the speaker should not indicate the location of the features that he 

 mentions by pointing to a map and saying "here" or "there": the 

 pointing stick says that; the speaker should say something more by 

 giving the verbal equivalent of the pointer's indication; for example, 

 " at the western base of the mountain range," or " on the southern shore 

 of the lake." Similarly, such phrases as " on this side " or " in that 

 direction " should be replaced by " on the northeastern side," and " in 

 the same direction as that of the river flow." 



May we not imagine a student, already practised in narration and 

 induction, in analysis and classification, and now returned from a 

 journey in classic lands, standing near a map of Italy and a diagram 

 of his district, and saying to his hearers : Conceive a subdued range 

 of deformed limestones in the back country, where several rivers, flow- 

 ing through transverse valleys, emerge upon a lowland which they cross 

 southwestward towards the sea; and then upon this lowland conceive 

 a series of four large volcanoes to be built up, each some thirty or 

 forty kilometers in diameter, but of moderate height and gentle slope, 

 so that they form a series about 150 kilometers in length from north- 

 west to southeast. After growth by eruption, the summits of all the 

 cones are destroyed by engulfment, which forms calderas holding lakes 

 in three of the cones, but in the fourth (southeasternmost) volcano 

 the caldera is filled again by new eruptions. At the same time, conse- 

 quent drainage erodes shallow radial furrows, which submaturely dis- 

 sect the gentle outer slopes of the cones. The rivers from the moun- 

 tainous back country are now obstructed ; they turn along the depression 



