cience is limited to the junior and
senior year by the existing requirements of the curriculum of the
institution or by the rulings of its officers--as is not uncommonly
the case at present--it is relatively immaterial whether the sections
of the course are marshaled under the single name "geology" or whether
they are given separate titles as sub-sciences, provided the special
subjects are arranged in logical sequence and in consecutive order.
If, on the other hand, the teacher's choice of time and relations is
freer, the more accessible phases of earth study, now well organized
under the name of "physiography," form an excellent course for either
freshmen or sophomores. It opens their minds to a world of interesting
activities about them which have probably been largely overlooked in
previous years. It gives them substance of thought that will be of
much service in the pursuit of other sciences. It has been found that
it is not without rather notable service to young students as the
basis of efforts in the art of literary presentation, a felicity to
which teachers of this important art frequently give emphatic
testimony. The secret seems to lie in the fact that physiography gives
varied and vivid material susceptible of literary presentation, while
the fixed qualities of the subject matter control the choice of terms
and the mode of expression.

If geography and physiography are given in the earlier years, the
course in historical geology, as well as the study of the more
difficult phases of geological processes, of the principles of dynamic
geology, together with mineralogy, petrology, and paleontology, may
best fall into the later years, even if some interval separates them
from the geography and physiography.

One hundred and twenty classroom hours, or their equivalent in
laboratory and field work, are perhaps to be regarded as the
irreducible minimum in a well-balanced undergraduate course, while
twice that time or more is required to give a notably strong college
course in earth-science.

A consideration of the sequences among the geological sub-subjects, as
also among the subjects that are held to be preliminary to the
earth-sciences, is important, but it would lead us too far into
details which depend more or less on local conditions. In the
experience of American teachers it appears to have been found
advisable to put geological processes and typical phenomena to the
front and to take up geological history