568 The American Naturalist. [July, 
why should the geographer be satisfied with so brief an outline 
of his science as will suffice for illustrating its connection with 
history ? The subject deserves study for its own worthy self; it 
is in this line that the teacher of geography must wish to see it 
developed, and it is to this end that he must strive, just as his col- 
leagues strive to advance the study of their respective sciences for 
their own sake, and not merely for the illustration of some other. 
For this reason I have endeavored to examine the forms of the 
land surface in detail, and to arrange them in their genetic re- . 
lations, in order to come to a closer appreciation of the meaning 
of the form of the earth and its development. In this way, it 
seems to me, we may best study the fundamental material of 
geography. A year ago I had the pleasure of presenting some 
outline of a geographic classification at a meeting of the 
National Geographic Society in Washington, and now I 
would add thereto some account of certain geographic models,^ 
designed as a means of illustrating this classification. Some 
of the models illustrate the development of plains and pla- 
teaus ; some present the various forms of volcanic cones and 
lava flows ; others indicate the changes in the features of a river 
as it grows old, or as it is embarrassed by glacial or volcanic 
accidents. You will perceive, in considering the use of these 
models, that it is essential that we should study the surface of the 
land by means of types, for it would be as impossible for a scholar 
to learn all the individual forms of the land as it would for the 
young botanist to learn all the individual plants of the world, 
especially if they were brought before him in the order of their 
occurrence over the world, and not in accordance with some well- 
tried system of logical and natural classification. Botanists and 
zoologists believe that it is time enough for their scholars to study 
the complex congeries of forms that constitute the fauna or flora 
of a country when they have mastered the rudiments of the sub- 
ject by careful study of a moderate number of typical examples 
of plants or animals ; and, indeed, in the modern development of 
