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ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



of geographical development. Mr. Wadsworth undertook a de- 

 scription of volcanic topography with the intention of giving a 

 better proportion of " values " to the various forms, and relegating 

 symmetrical volcanic cones to a less prominent rank than is given 

 to them in current text-books. 



Summer Course in Physiography. 



The summer course in Elementary Physiography seems to have 

 met a popular want, as the number attending it increased from 

 nine in the summer of 1895, when it was first offered, to fifty- 

 three this year. In this course Professor Davis had the assist- 

 ance of Mr. J. M. Boutwell, of the College class of 1897. With 

 the exception of one person who was enrolled as a u student," 

 all the others were actually engaged in professional work. The 

 greater number were teachers in Massachusetts grammar schools, 

 but teachers in high schools, academies, and normal schools, and 

 school superintendents, were also represented. Instruction was 

 given by morning lectures, illustrated by diagrams, maps, and 

 lantern slides, and frequently interrupted for informal confer- 

 ences ; by laboratory work, in which many diagrams and maps 

 besides those used in the lectures, were conveniently placed for 

 personal study ; and by field excursions to Waverly, Newtonville, 

 Nantasket, Provincetown, and Greenfield, Mass. It was manifest 

 from the avidity with which the teachers accepted a rational 

 method of studying and teaching geography that empirical meth- 

 ods are outgrown, even though they may still be preserved by 

 those who have no escape from them. Another result of the 

 course was the determination to introduce, in the next session 

 of the school, a series of systematic exercises in outdoor obser- 

 vation and description of elementary forms, so as to overcome if 

 possible the embarrassment now prevailing among teachers when 

 in the presence of nature and in the absence of a text-book. On 

 the whole, it may be said that the summer physiographical work 

 with teachers, as now developing, takes high rank among the 

 duties of the year. 



It was particularly with a view to introducing observational 

 work at an early stage in the teaching of geography that Profes- 

 sor Davis prepared for Connecticut and Rhode Island small pam- 

 phlets on " The State Topographical Map as an aid to the Study 



