The Journal of Geography Volume 8 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1909 edition. Excerpt: ...study of the weather allows the use of much material easy of access and particularly well fitted to introduce the young student to scientific methods. The relations between cause and effect in life relations are very striking in the weather and climate of the student's home and with clear definite conceptions he is better prepared to approach the study of the land as acted upon by the climatic forces. The importance of the elements of climate in their influence upon life and the occupations of man are to be given more attention, rather than this time devoted to the physical or chemical experiments to determine the air pressure, latent heat, constituents of the air or the theoretical circulation of the atmosphere. In the land study there must be considerable stress given to the soil and its formation, its distribution in North America and its relation to vegetation and the occupations of man. This is a vital part of geographic study which is quite generally neglected in our present courses. The rivers, lakes, plains and the mountains are the great geographic forms to be considered not in a genetic sense nor from the standpoint of dynamic geology but from the effect they exert upon activities, industries and life. Mental discipline in the inductive and deductive reasoning can be abundantly secured from those conditions which concern human interests and such discipline will be fully as vigorous and beneficial as that now obtained from systematic classification of land forms or the various problems of dynamic geology. If some critic says this is not geography, he thinks only of physical geography, which it is granted this is not, but this life element should constitute a larger part of the secondary school geography. The pupil needs as a part of his...