MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 13 



REPORT ON COURSES IN PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



By Professor W. M. Davis. 



During the past year, no significant changes have been made in 

 the courses on Physical Geography. With the exception of the 

 advanced course (Geology 20), all were repeated for Radcliffe 

 students. The course on the Physiography of Europe, first given 

 two years ago, and now offered alternately with a course on the 

 Physiography of the United States, has again been greatly aided 

 by the use of the large scale topographical maps of the various 

 European countries, which were brought from the College Library 

 and temporarily placed in the Geographical Laboratory, as needed. 



Special subjects since studied in the advanced, course are as 

 follows: the physical features of Norway, by Mr. R. L. Barrett; 

 the coastal plain of Maine, by Mr. J. M. Boutwell ; the drumlins and 

 beaches of Nantasket, by Mr. R. B. Dixon; the Piedmont topog- 

 raphy of Bavaria, by Mr. D. Gibbs ; a classification of lakes, by 

 Mr. W. L. W. Field ; the topography of the neighborhood of 

 Turner's Falls, Mass., by Mr. M. S. W. Jefferson, and the tidal 

 phenomena of the Atlantic coast of the United States, by the 

 same ; and the Allegheny Plateau, by Mr. Y. F. Marsters. In 

 connection with this course, an excursion was made in the autumn 

 to Syracuse, N. Y., for the purpose of examining the channels cut 

 transversely across the northern spurs of the Allegheny plateau by 

 temporary glacial streams, as first described by Mr. G. K. Gilbert. 



Mr. Ward spent eight months, from June, 1897, to January, 

 1898, in making a tour around South America in order to gain 

 some personal experience of weather and climate over a broad 

 range of latitude. The points visited included Rio Janeiro, 

 the National Observatory at Cordova, the Falkland Islands, the 

 Strait of Magellan, Valparaiso, and the Harvard Observatory at 

 Arequipa. 



During his stay of three months in Peru, Mr. Ward inspected 

 the meteorological stations of the Harvard College Observatory, 

 including that on El Misti (19,200 ft.), the highest meteorological 

 station in the world, and that at Cuzco. Extended barometer 



