American Geographical Society

Practical Exercises in Physical Geography (With Quarto Atlas) by William Morris DavisBulletin of the American Geographical Society, Vol. 40, No. 9 (1908), p. 573Published by: American Geographical SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/198370 .

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Book Notices. Book Notices.

Practieal Exercises in Physical Geography (with Quarto Atlas). By William Morris Davis. xii and I48 pp., and Index. Ginn & Co., Boston, New York, Chicago, and London, 90o8.

Professor Davis says in his preface to this Manual that the text and accom- panying atlas are intended to provide a series of disciplinary exercises which may be -assigned as "laboratory work" in connection with any of the modern text-books on Physical Geography:

Experience has shown that a student may fail to acquire a clear understanding of the facts and problems of Physical Geography if they are presented only through the text of a printed page; and that even the ornamentation of the page by pertinent illustrations does not always suffice to insure a full comprehension of essential points. The student's attention must be directed to and detained upon each feature of a complicated fact, each step of a large problem, in order that the facts and problems may reach his understanding and remain in his memory; hence the desirability of combining the per- formance of a series of systematic exercises with the study of a text.

The topics of these exercises are such as are treated in greater or lessser full- ness in all recent text-books. They embrace: The Valley Systems of the Lands; A Coastal Plain; Valleys in a Coastal Plain; Plateaus and Canyons; The Sculp- ture of Mountains; Volcanoes and Lava Flows; The River Cycle; Shore Lines; The Distribution of Temperature; The Prevailing Winds of the World; Weather Maps; and Ocean Currents.

The atlas plates are, with some exceptions, ideal designs and not copies of actual occurrences, in order to secure well-arranged and systematic progress in teaching the subject. The author thought it better to use ideal designs, because the illustrations of typical features in weather and topographic maps are usually complicated by the addition of irrelevant details, distracting to the beginner.

Each exercise in the manual refers to the related figures and plates in the atlas and contains questions, his answers to which the student must record in his note-book.

Teachers of physical geography have generally recognized the need for such exercises and material for laboratory work. They will welcome this additional

*and thorough appliance for the teaching of the subject which Professor Davis has now supplied.

L'Evolution souterraine. Par E.-A. Martel. 388 pp., and 80 Illustra- tions. ErneSt Flammarion, Paris, 9g08. (Price, 3.50 fr.)

This small octavo, attractive in mechanical production and adorned with many striking photographs, most of them the work of the author, is practical)y a resume of the progress of our knowledge of the subterranean regions during twenty-five years of research, and especially of the work promoted by L'Academie des Sciences. The aim of the author is to set forth known facts in a way to interest intelligent readers. His pages show that he has consistently avoided dogmatic conclusions as to things we think we know, or concerning which we are still ignorant. In the field of geology he discusses the fissuration of the earth's crust and tectonic movements, their origin, elements, and importance. He then treats in order the subjects of subterranean heat and vulcanism; subterranean waters and 'air; caverns, minerals, magnetism, and gravity; influences of ground waters upon the public health; subterranean floras and faunas, fossil and present; tertiary, paleolithic, and neolithic man; the various human uses of caverns, etc. Mr. Martel is one of the foremost authorities on cav~erns and their phenomena, and this careful compilation of data concerning the subterranean world is partly drawn from his own studies covering many years.

Practieal Exercises in Physical Geography (with Quarto Atlas). By William Morris Davis. xii and I48 pp., and Index. Ginn & Co., Boston, New York, Chicago, and London, 90o8.

Professor Davis says in his preface to this Manual that the text and accom- panying atlas are intended to provide a series of disciplinary exercises which may be -assigned as "laboratory work" in connection with any of the modern text-books on Physical Geography:

Experience has shown that a student may fail to acquire a clear understanding of the facts and problems of Physical Geography if they are presented only through the text of a printed page; and that even the ornamentation of the page by pertinent illustrations does not always suffice to insure a full comprehension of essential points. The student's attention must be directed to and detained upon each feature of a complicated fact, each step of a large problem, in order that the facts and problems may reach his understanding and remain in his memory; hence the desirability of combining the per- formance of a series of systematic exercises with the study of a text.

The topics of these exercises are such as are treated in greater or lessser full- ness in all recent text-books. They embrace: The Valley Systems of the Lands; A Coastal Plain; Valleys in a Coastal Plain; Plateaus and Canyons; The Sculp- ture of Mountains; Volcanoes and Lava Flows; The River Cycle; Shore Lines; The Distribution of Temperature; The Prevailing Winds of the World; Weather Maps; and Ocean Currents.

The atlas plates are, with some exceptions, ideal designs and not copies of actual occurrences, in order to secure well-arranged and systematic progress in teaching the subject. The author thought it better to use ideal designs, because the illustrations of typical features in weather and topographic maps are usually complicated by the addition of irrelevant details, distracting to the beginner.

Each exercise in the manual refers to the related figures and plates in the atlas and contains questions, his answers to which the student must record in his note-book.

Teachers of physical geography have generally recognized the need for such exercises and material for laboratory work. They will welcome this additional

*and thorough appliance for the teaching of the subject which Professor Davis has now supplied.

L'Evolution souterraine. Par E.-A. Martel. 388 pp., and 80 Illustra- tions. ErneSt Flammarion, Paris, 9g08. (Price, 3.50 fr.)

This small octavo, attractive in mechanical production and adorned with many striking photographs, most of them the work of the author, is practical)y a resume of the progress of our knowledge of the subterranean regions during twenty-five years of research, and especially of the work promoted by L'Academie des Sciences. The aim of the author is to set forth known facts in a way to interest intelligent readers. His pages show that he has consistently avoided dogmatic conclusions as to things we think we know, or concerning which we are still ignorant. In the field of geology he discusses the fissuration of the earth's crust and tectonic movements, their origin, elements, and importance. He then treats in order the subjects of subterranean heat and vulcanism; subterranean waters and 'air; caverns, minerals, magnetism, and gravity; influences of ground waters upon the public health; subterranean floras and faunas, fossil and present; tertiary, paleolithic, and neolithic man; the various human uses of caverns, etc. Mr. Martel is one of the foremost authorities on cav~erns and their phenomena, and this careful compilation of data concerning the subterranean world is partly drawn from his own studies covering many years.

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