No. 4— The Harvard Geographical Models. 
By William Morris Davis. 
The use of models or reliefs in teaching geography has been 
frequently advocated but seldom put systematically into practice. 
It is not to be doubted that the representation of the manifold forms 
of the land can be better understood from o-ood models than from 
o 
any other means, short of actual exploration ; but good models are 
so few and so expensive that they have no place in our general 
school system. The models here illustrated and described have 
been designed and constructed in the hope of eventually making the 
nse of such aids much more common than it is now. 
Geographical models are of various classes. The models made 
of sand, pulp, clay, etc., by young scholars belong in the series and 
certainly have an element of value; but it is to be questioned 
whether much of the time employed in making such models could 
not be better employed in studying better models. Actual 
modeling by school children need not be carried further than actual 
mapping; both can be best introduced in order to make it clear that 
models and maps may be used to represent parts of the earth’s 
surface; but it is undesirable to carry work in this direction so far 
that school children become makers rather than students of maps and 
models. When good models are as plentiful and as cheap as good 
maps are today, the time spent on modeling may be reduced to the 
small measure now properly allotted to mapping. 
Models of actual places made by geographical experts, or con¬ 
structed by artisans on the basis of surveys by geographical experts, 
may be divided into two groups according as they are of large or 
small scale. Small scale models are at their best when they include 
some natural division of moderate size, such as a state; of these 
we may mention the superb model of California constructed by W. D. 
Johnson and exhibited at one end of the California building in 
the World’s Fair at Chicago, 1893; the models of various states 
constructed by E. E. Howell, of Washington; the model of Italy 
by Pomba, on a true curved terrestrial surface. According to their 
accuracy of construction and to the moderation in their vertical 
