104 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 
order of convenience as that which suggests the use of such terms 
as cube, cylinder, and sphere, in the kindergarten, after the things 
thus named are familiar by sight. Any teacher who desires to do 
so may of course introduce other terms, or dispense with terms 
altogether; but the facts which the terms represent cannot be 
dispensed with, if the verity of nature is to be presented to school 
children. Indeed, if children were allowed to base their study on 
models, supplemented by pictures and maps and descriptions of 
actual forms, I believe that they would soon invent for themselves 
a paraphrastic terminology, so simple and manifest are the facts of 
form and process. To withhold such geographical explanations as 
are summarized by systematic terms, or to replace them by empirical 
definitions, is to retard the progress of school children in one of the 
most universal subjects of study, and to blunt rather than to sharpen 
their intelligence. A teacher who is easy minded on these matters, 
and who has an adequate supply of illustrative material, can give 
scholars an appreciation of the real facts of nature far beyond 
anything that has ever been attained by text-book recitations. 
It is immaterial whether the explanation of the land and sea forms 
is given before or after the relation of these forms to their occupa¬ 
tion by man. The questions asked by a class of bright scholars are 
probably better guides to the order of presentation than any pre¬ 
determined plan. If the relation of the branching bays to a system 
of partly submerged valleys is noticed by one of the class, let the 
explanation by relative depression be introduced at once. The 
cause of depression is as unknown as the cause of elevation in the 
second model; but the facts of depression and elevation are patent 
in both examples. If a question is asked about harbors, the con¬ 
ditions of life may at once be taken up. In either case, familiarity 
with the first topic that is considered will aid in the discussion of 
the second. 
On this half-drowned coast, the most noticeable matter in the 
relation of earth and man is the shelter given by the promontories 
to the bay heads, or by the islands to the coves back of them. In such 
a region the art of navigation is naturally developed. The outlying 
islands tempt exploration. The sheltered harbors promote the use 
of small boats, which in the course of time are constructed on 
larger and larger scale. Coastwise voyages of much greater length 
than from the mainland to neighboring islands are then attempted, 
and at last comes the bold navigator who sails forth on the open 
