26 



ANNUAL REPOKT OF THE 



REPORT ON COURSES IN PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



By Professor W. M. Davis. 



The most important changes during the past year have been 

 the addition of field excursions to the course in Elementary 

 Physiography (Geol. 2), the transfer of the course in Elemen- 

 tary Meteorology to Mr. Ward, and the presentation for the 

 first time of the course on the Physiography of Europe, by Pro- 

 fessor Davis. As in former years, all these courses were re- 

 peated for the students of Radcliffe College. 



The field excursions in Elementary Physiography, conducted by 

 Professor Davis and Mr. Griswold, were introduced because the 

 experience of previous years made it only too plain that our under- 

 graduate students have no sufficient acquaintance with actual land 

 forms as objects of conscious study, and that without such ac- 

 quaintance it was difficult for many of them to acquire the art of 

 reading maps, on which much of the laboratory work depends. 

 The excursions proved of distinct value, although the necessity 

 of limiting them narrowly in time and expense was somewhat 

 embarrassing. 



In the course on the Physiography of Europe, the sets of large- 

 scale topographical maps of foreign countries, accumulated in the 

 University Library chiefly during the last five years, and the col- 

 lection of grouped sheets of the same maps mounted for laboratory 

 use, were put into active service and proved to be simply invaluable 

 in giving vivid ideas concerning the facts of geographical form. 

 Exercise in reading these maps largely superseded reference to 

 written text, although the latter was drawn from the most recent 

 monographs accessible. In view of this, an article was prepared 

 for the Chicago " Journal of Geology," advocating the more gen- 

 eral use of large-scale maps in teaching, and indicating by special 

 examples the character of the results thus obtainable. One of the 

 most noticeable advantages of the maps was that they were sus- 

 ceptible of uniform treatment in study and description ; while the 



