16 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



REPORT OF THE STURGIS HOOPER PROFESSOR OF 



GEOLOGY. 



By William M. Davis. 



My work for the past year may be reported under four heads : — 

 A geographical pilgrimage from Ireland to Italy, service as visit- 

 ing professor at the University of Paris, proof-reading of the book 

 containing my lectures at Berlin, 1908-1909, and preparation of 

 the Transcontinental Excursion of the American Geographical 

 Society of New York. 



The geographical pilgrimage began in southern Ireland, Aug. 1, 

 and ended in northern Italy, Oct. 5, 1911. It was an outgrowth 

 of the international excursion in northern Italy and southeastern 

 France in the summer of 1908. We had the advantage of the 

 expert service of Prof. G. A. J. Cole in southern Ireland, Dr. John 

 E. Marr in Wales, Mr. Aubrey Strahan in southern England, Prof. 

 Antoine Vacher in Brittany, Prof. Albert Demangeon in the Limou- 

 sin, Prof. P. H. Glaugeaud in Auvergne, Dr. Fritz Nussbaum in the 

 Jura and across the Alps, and Profs. Marinelli and Ricchieri in 

 northern Italy. Our party included representatives from Ireland, 

 Wales, Scotland, England, France, Germany, Norway, Switzer- 

 land, Austria, Italy, Servia, Japan, and the United States. Dis- 

 cussions in the field were frequently directed to criticisms of 

 methods of presentation, as well as to studies of matters of fact. 

 The experience was as profitable as it was pleasant. 



My service as visiting professor at the University of Paris, where 

 I was given the title of "professeur agree," was the first under the 

 new arrangement of direct relations between Harvard and France. 

 My work began on Nov. 17 with a public address on the explana- 

 tory spirit in modern geography; all the following lectures, except 

 one in the late winter on the Colorado Canyon, were given in 

 "closed courses," limited to persons enrolled as students at the 

 Sorbonne; this arrangement was made partly because the pres- 

 ence of a non-scientific and changing public would have lessened 

 the efficiency of instruction for professional students of geography; 

 more because, as I had been asked to give the lectures in French, 

 it seemed undesirable to exhibit the peculiarities of my style 

 before an audience that might have been drawn as much by vague 



