Teaching of Geography.

Professor Davis gave the third and last of his lectures on the Teaching of Geography, in the Geological lecture room yesterday afternoon. In his first lecture Professor Davis spoke especially of the kind of preparation the careful teacher of geography should make; in his second he pointed out the popular mistake in the method of teaching the subject; and in his last he showed some of the ways in which the study of geography may be made more interesting and profitable. The great difficulty for the scholar in the study of geography lies not in the subject itself but in understanding it from the teacher's words.

The text books are necessarily brief and require more explanations than the teacher can supply. In order to make good this need each school should have a good library, containing an encyclopedia, physical and geographical atlases, geographical magazines and stories of travel prepared by travellers and not readers of travels. The teacher should give out subjects for the members of the class to look up and to report on to the rest of the class. In this way an interest in the subject is aroused which original investigation always adds. These exercises may be made useful as an exercise in English composition if the scholar is required to make a written report on his subject.

A school library, then, is one of the most useful aids to the study of geography; another important help is a collection of maps, photographs and diagrams. The United States Coast Survey has made careful engravings of almost all parts of the American coast, and illustrations taken from these maps give a much better idea of the subject than can be gained from a very careful verbal explanation. The Scottish Geographical Magazine also contains very good maps which, mounted on cardboard make a very useful collection. Photographs, when they can be had, are an admirable means of illustration, for they add just what maps and diagrams fail to show, that is, a correct view of the thing itself. Typographical models are also very useful in this same way, but are usually very expensive.

The great difficulty in all geographical teaching is that the scholars do not get a clear idea of what the teacher means. The teacher has studied, read and travelled, but the scholars have not. Any means of illustration, therefore, which will help to present the ideas of the teacher more vividly to the scholar should be made use of.

In closing Professor Davis then showed some lantern slides taken from the experiments which he is carrying on.