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Editorial 



We think too little of the great influence which geography 

 wields over our daily lives. It is a matter which we as teachers 

 should emphasize. This January morning the view from the 

 editorial windows gives a scene of the earth snow clad to the 

 horizon, variegated with the purple patches of bare forests, and the 

 chickadee and nuthatches are taking cheerful turns at the banquet 

 board in the oak tree. A year ago we were looking out over the 

 white sands of Florida and were watching the pelicans fishing 

 while we sat in the shade of a palm and a live oak. Four years 

 ago in California we looked out over sunny orange orchards to 

 rugged snow-capped mountains and a varied thrush, the most 

 gorgeous robin in the world, was finding his breakfast under the 

 calla lilies blossoming in the garden. And ten years ago we were 

 sitting in a garden in Luxor, Egypt, under the shade of date palms 

 and bamboo while a great stork rattled his beak by the fountain; 

 a gazelle peered at us from behind a hibiscus bush and a hoopoe 

 scratched in the dust at our feet, opening and closing his crown 

 feathers like a golden halo about his head. Of these divergent 

 January scenes the only things in common were the skies, the hea- 

 venly bodies and the English sparrows and the differences were all 

 due to geography. In each place the native peoples were living 

 by the laws of geographic conditions which are as fixed as were 

 the laws of the Medes and Persians. Every day of our lives is 

 modified and ruled by our geography but so accustomed are we to 

 our living conditions that we never think about it any more than 

 we do about the air we are breathing. 



Another geographic thought for us this New Year should lead us 

 to thankfulness for the good fortune of being on our own special 



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