Physical Geography

Abstract

AN examination of this volume gives rise to feeling: of both congratulation and regret—congratulation that so admirable a manual for the elementary student of physical geography has been produced, and regret that so little attention is given to the subject in our schools and colleges. Rational methods of instruction are now advocated for all the concrete sciences, and are being extensively applied to physics and chemistry; but geography has only been very slightly benefited by the pedagogic reforms of the last decade, and in the majority of our secondary schools it is still represented by definitions, outline maps, uninteresting statistics, and lists of names which make no real impression upon the minds of the pupils. Physical geography, the elements of which should be presented at the very beginning of the study of the earth, is usually neglected altogether, or taught in a fashion that fails entirely to place pupils in the receptive intellectual attitude reached after sound instruction in any science.

Physical Geography.

By Prof. W. M. Davis, assisted by W. H. Snyder. Pp. xvii + 428 + 9 plates. (Boston and London: Ginn and Co., 1899.)