18 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



Proof-reading of "Die Erklarende Beschreibung der Land- 

 formen," which presents in expanded form the lectures given at 

 Berlin in 1908-1909 consumed about a day a week for most of the 

 winter. The interest which the European members of my interna- 

 tional excursions of 1908 and 1911 expressed in an explanatory 

 method of describing land forms, and the little acquaintance that 

 they had with the systematic development of such a method, leads 

 me to hope that a somewhat elaborate exposition of the method as 

 I had developed it at Harvard during some twenty years past, and 

 as I presented it at Berlin in 1908-1909, may be of value to readers 

 on the other side of the Atlantic. 



The Transcontinental Excursion of 1912 was organized in 

 celebration of the sixtieth anniversary of the American Geographi- 

 cal Society of New York and of the occupancy of its new house. 

 My work as director of the excursion began in the spring of 1911. 

 Much correspondence was conducted during the past winter in 

 Paris, and after my return home four months of continuous work 

 were given to perfecting arrangements for transportation, recep- 

 tions, and side trips. The excursion left New York in a special 

 train, August 22, and returned there October 17, after a journey 

 of about 13,000 miles. The party included forty-two round-trip 

 European members from fifteen countries, and a varying attend- 

 ance of Americans from all parts of the United States; the 

 average membership on the train being about sixty-five. Although 

 this journey took place after the period covered by this report, 

 I may be permitted to record, in this last statement that I shall 

 submit as Sturgis Hooper Professor, that the excursion was 

 successfully accomplished and that its success fully justified the 

 large amount of work that it involved. 



Many considerations, all of which were carefully discussed with 

 my colleagues, have led me to resign my position as Sturgis Hooper 

 Professor of Geology at the end of the academic year, 1911-1912. 

 Prominent among these was the wish to devote more time to writ- 

 ing, in the hope of thus addressing a larger audience than would 

 be possible by lecturing. If this change of position involves some 

 sacrifice on my part, the sacrifice is small in comparison to the great 

 advantages that have come to me as the holder of a research pro- 

 fessorship at Harvard during the past thirteen years. 



