MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 



27 



use of texts required a frequent change of point of view, aim, and 

 method, according to the hat>it of the author consulted. The ab- 

 sence of any complete and consistent method of treating geo- 

 graphical subjects became inconveniently conspicuous during the 

 progress of the course. It was found impossible to illustrate the 

 Physiography of Europe with any thoroughness by means of the 

 Gardner collection of photographs, for, in spite of the large num- 

 ber of foreign views in the collection, it does not yet include a sys- 

 tematic series selected to represent the leading physical features 

 of each country. It is therefore suggested that special effort be 

 directed, during the coming years, to making good this deficiency. 

 The time of a well prepared and well disposed graduate, during a 

 year of foreign travel, might be pleasurably and profitably given 

 to this task. 



The course in Advanced Physiography was devoted, as in former 

 years, to individual study of selected problems. Mr. Gulliver com- 

 pleted his discussion of the development of shore lines, embodying 

 his results in a thesis which was accepted as contributing towards 

 the degree of Ph. D., which he secured at the end of the year. He 

 is now continuing his studies abroad, having already during the 

 past summer visited a number of interesting shore localities. Mr. 

 Woodman undertook the study of Brittany, as an example of an 

 old land adjoining a denuded coastal plain (the western part of 

 the Paris basin), with special attention to the courses of rivers as 

 indicative of the area of old land from which the coastal plain 

 cover has been stripped. In another connection, the same student 

 examined the western slope of the central plateau of France, with 

 the same problem in mind. Although not intended to lessen the 

 importance of local field study, the investigations by Messrs. Gul- 

 liver and Woodman may be taken to confirm the contention that 

 original physiographical research may be based on good maps, 

 provided the student has acquired the art of map reading. In 

 regions of complicated structure, geological maps and text con- 

 stitute an essential supplement to topographical maps. Mr. Curtis 

 undertook a novel subject : the design of a coastal region in which 

 various features should be rationally associated, and its represen- 

 tation in a model. The essentials of this task were that every 

 element of form should be reasonably accounted for by citation 

 of a similar form in nature ; and that the association of these 

 forms in the designed model should follow a reasonable scheme 



