GEOGRAPHIC 



LITERATURE 



Excursions and Lessons in Home Geog- 

 raphy. By Charles A. McMurry, 

 Ph. D. Pp. 152. 5 x 7^ inches. 

 New York : MacMillan Co. 

 A much -needed book, containing 

 many fine illustrations. The student 

 can find out from its pages anything 

 from the way his own particular part of 

 the country was formed to the most ap- 

 proved method of milking cows and 

 maintaining a sanitary dairy. The 

 book is written in such simple language 

 and is so well expressed that any one 

 can understand and enjoy it. 



The Philippine Islands, J493-J898, vol. 

 xxi. Edited by Emma Helen Blair 

 and James Alexander Robertson. Pp. 

 317. 9^x6^ inches. Cleveland: 

 The Arthur H. Clark Co. 1905. 

 In this 2 1 st volume the publishers 

 have got down to the year 1624 in their 

 monumental undertaking. This one 

 deals entirely with religious matters for 

 that year, being composed of sources 

 bearing on ecclesiastical squabbles, the 

 founding of a Japanese seminary, and 

 the labors of the early Recollect Mis- 

 sions. The last forms more than half of 

 the book, and, like Jesuit writings, con- 

 tains very valuable descriptions of the 

 country, the people, and their customs. 

 Typographically the book is almost per- 

 fect for use, the print being large, the 

 paper heavy, and the binding excellent. 

 It seems a great pity that this enter- 

 prising firm should suffer a loss in their 

 effort to advance the cause of knowl- 

 edge. C. M. 



Along the Nile with General Grant* 



By Elbert E. Farman. Pp. xviii -f 

 339. New York : The Grafton Press. 

 1904. $2.50 net. 



The voyage of General Grant up the 

 Nile to the First Cataract, in 1877, 

 serves in this volume as a reason for its 

 publication. The chapters on Euxor, 

 Abydos, Thebes, the Temples of Kar- 

 nak, and the Islands of Philae and Ele- 

 phantine are evidences of Judge Far- 



man's careful observations of the re- 

 markable antiquity of Egypt. The 

 volume is unusually well illustrated, 

 and will be of special interest to those 

 who have made, or contemplate making, 

 the tour of the Nile. A. W. G. 



Dodge's Advanced Geography. By 



Richard Elwood Dodge. Pp. 333 + 

 xix. 9x7^ inches. Chicago : 

 Rand, McNally & Co. 1904. 

 The distinguishing conception of this 

 work is the emphasis laid upon the 

 ' ' causal notion ' ' in geography — that is, 

 that our civilization is the result of 

 natural conditions. First come geo- 

 graphic principles, then their application 

 in the second part, with a rapid view of 

 the different continents and leading 

 countries of the world. The orderly 

 growth of industrial life from natural 

 conditions is the central theme in all 

 cases. Each important region is repre- 

 sented by three maps, relief, political, 

 and commercial. There are many beau- 

 tiful illustrations and helpful sugges- 

 tions. 



The writer of the text has likely 

 never gone over this ground thoroughly 

 as a teacher, else some defects would be 

 absent. It seems a waste of space to 

 tell us that little is known about polar 

 winds (50). There is much haziness 

 about monsoons and summer and winter 

 winds (48, 49,50). There is a trouble- 

 some mixture of the terms ' ' miles ' ' and 

 " degrees" ( 89 ). It is confusing to 

 speak of ' ' northwest trade-winds ' ' 

 (319). Yokohama does not have an 

 excellent harbor. To speak of Georgia 

 growing sugar "extensively" (144) 

 and then in the diagram (149) to show 

 how insignificant her total is will puz- 

 zle most young minds. The work of 

 the cartography ' ' expert ' ' is decidedly 

 the most unsatisfactory part of the book. 

 He has sugar-cane over nearly all of 

 South Carolina (148). He has a big 

 cotton area in the middle of the south 

 Pacific (330). In other places he fairly 

 riots in details, crowding his maps to 



