MAGAZINE FOR TEACHERS. 
 
 STS 
 
 j W* %-*" KJ* KJ> 
 
 30 
 
 7T 
 
 October, 1900. 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 IN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 COMPILED BY 
 S. Y. GILLAN, 
 
 Editor Western Teacher , Milwaukee^ Wis. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY S. Y. GILLAN & CO., 
 MILWAUKEE. 
 
 Yearly Subscription 75 Cents. 
 
 Single Numbers, Ten Cents. Triple Numbers, Thirty Cents. 
 
 Double Numbers, Twenty Cents. Quadruple Number, Forty Cents. 
 
 
 ZS 30AK o V <«V 
 
GILLAN'S QUARTERLY. 
 
 Subscription Price, 75 Cents a Year. 
 
 No. 1. Tracing and Sketching Lessons in Geography, by S. Y. Cillan, 
 is a volume of 156 pages, and presents not only a method but also 
 a body of knowledge to be taught. The book fills a place not 
 occupied by any other. Paper, 40 cents; Cloth 75 cents. 
 
 No. 2. Western Teacher Song Book. A collection of the best songs 
 for schools. Price, 10 cents; $1.00 a dozen. 
 
 No. 3. Language Lessons. A storehouse of supplementary matter for 
 teachers of all grades. 30 cents. 
 
 No. 4. Readings and Recitations. For Friday afternoons. 20 cents. 
 
 No. 5. Arithmetic in the Common School, by S. Y. Gillan. A critical 
 examination of prevailing methods and a discussion of funda¬ 
 mental principles. 
 
 Part II is made up of helpful special methods and devices 
 for the teaching of particular subjects. 40 cents. 
 
 No. 6. Curiosities for the Schoolroom, Teachers who appreciate the 
 value of well chosen exercises to stimulate interest and investiga¬ 
 tion, will find in this little volume a useful collection of material. 
 10 cents. 
 
 No. 7. Drill Tables and Problems in Arithmetic for Mental Train¬ 
 ing, by W. C. Hewitt and S. Y. Gillan, is a unique series of lessons 
 differing widely from the so-called mental arithmetic. 10 cents; 
 $1.00 a dozen. 
 
 No. 8. Riffle Creek Papers and Little Sermons for Teachers, by S. 
 
 Y. Gillan. A practical presentation of the basic facts of peda¬ 
 gogy. i he development of each subject proceeds on the assump¬ 
 tion that plain language and practical illustrations are the best 
 medium for imparting educational doctrine. Paper, 40 cents; 
 Cloth, 65 cents. 
 
 No. 9. (Special) Atlas of Two Wars. A collection of fine, accurate, up- 
 to-date maps of the Philippines and the Transvaal, also of Cuba, 
 Porto Rico and Hawaii, and a correct map showing territorial 
 growth of the United States. 25 cents. 
 
 No. 10. Grains of Wheat Without the Chaff, winnowed by S. Y. Gillan. 
 
 A rich collection of pedagogical articles written in a pleasing 
 style. 20 cents. 
 
 No. 11. Mathematical Geography. The subject is introduced by a 
 method widely different from the one usually employed in text¬ 
 books. 10 cents. 
 
 No. 12. The Music Student’s Guide, by Mrs. H. R. Reynolds. A book for 
 beginners in the study of music. 25 cents. 
 
 No. 13. Supplementary Lessons in Geography. (This volume) 20 cents. 
 
 We cannot send any of these numbers as free samples, but will refund 
 
 the money for any returned within a week as unsatisfactory. 
 
 S. Y. CILLAN & COMPANY, 
 
 141 Wisconsin St., MILWAUKEE, WIS. 
 
GILLAN’S QUARTERLY 
 
 IN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 COMPILED BY 
 
 S. Y. GILLAN 
 
 MILWAUKEE 
 
 S. Y. GILLAN & COMPANY 
 
 1900 
 
HOUTKAMP A CANNON, 
 PRINTERS, ENGRAVERS AND BINDERS 
 MILWAUKEE. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Every up-to-date teacher of geography appreciates 
 good supplementary matter in this branch. On the part 
 of the pupil interest in a text-book is short-lived unless 
 the teacher supplies other matter related to the topics 
 assigned in the lessons. This little volume is compiled 
 with a view to the teacher’s need of a storehouse from 
 which to get such material. Some of the articles are 
 purposely selected for entertainment, or to excite inter¬ 
 est and curiosity, rather than for study or mastery of 
 facts. The discerning teacher knows “which is which” 
 without having them labeled. 
 
 A few articles are included which relate to methods of 
 teaching geography. Most of what appears in these 
 pages was originally published in The Western Teacher. 
 
SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS IN GEOGRAPHY. 
 
 Some Facts about Greater New York, 
 
 Since 1897 Greater New York, including the for¬ 
 mer cities of New York, Brooklyn, Long Island City, 
 and a score of towns and villages adjacent has been one 
 city. It has a population of about three and a half mil¬ 
 lions on an area of 360 square miles. 
 
 This land and The buildings on it are valued at 
 $4,500,000,000. It is impossible to comprehend this 
 vast sum, but we will understand better that the land is 
 worth on an average 50 cents a square foot. There 
 are sections on Broadway and Wall street that could 
 not be bought for a thousand times that sum. The 
 property value of this modern city would buy one-third 
 of all the farms in the United States. This great city 
 is less than three hundred years old, and during the 
 first two hundred years it did not attain a growth equal 
 to the increase of some periods of six months during 
 the past fifty years. London and Paris were cities a 
 thousand years before ever a white man set foot on 
 Manhattan Island. What has made this immense city 
 spring up in so short a time in a new country ? The 
 New York harbor, the Erie canal, and the enterprise 
 of the American people. 
 
6 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 
 The whole of Greater New York is grouped about 
 New York harbor, one of the amplest, safest and most 
 picturesque harbors on the globe. The peculiar action 
 of the tide on this harbor owing to its position w T ith 
 reference to Long Island Sound and Hell Gate is of 
 great advantage.* New York City proper alone has 
 a water frontage of sixty miles, while the shores of the 
 other islands and much of the main land is lined with 
 wharves. Brooklyn has a great array of dry docks. 
 This harbor looks like a forest of masts. 
 
 During the Revolution Boston was a greater city 
 than New York, and might have remained so if the 
 Erie canal had not been built. This gave New York 
 the advantage of a large internal commerce besides the 
 foreign trade, and was therefore a great impetus to New 
 York City. It was built in 1826, before the day of 
 railroads, and opened communication with all western 
 New York state. When the western states were settled 
 they found they had an open waterway from Chicago 
 to New York City. 
 
 New York now receives two-thirds of the imported 
 goods brought to the United States, and sends out two- 
 fifths of the exports. Other cities have commodious 
 harbors, or fine waterways, or are situated in rich coun¬ 
 tries, but no other city combines all these advantages to 
 such a degree as Greater New York, the greatest city 
 of the western hemisphere. 
 
 ♦See Gillan’s Tracing and Sketching Lessons in Geography, page 65. 
 
IN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 7 
 
 Camels in Arizona. 
 
 Some years ago an attempt was made to introduce 
 the camel into the arid lands of the southwest, and a 
 large herd was landed at Galveston in 1858. They 
 came from Alexandria, Egypt, and were intended to 
 carry the mail between San Antonio, Tex., and Los 
 Angeles. 
 
 “The ship of the desert” was never a success in 
 Arizona; the broad, cushioned feet that were made for 
 smooth and sandy plains were too tender for the rocks 
 and cactus-strewn trails of the mountains. The ani¬ 
 mals became lame, showed an ungovernable, temper, 
 could not be handled by any but experienced men, and 
 were finally abandoned as a nuisance. Several were 
 turned loose to wander at will, and from time to time 
 they would be seen seeking shelter in the canons or 
 feeding on the plains. In 1877 a couple of French¬ 
 men rounded up between twenty and thirty and at¬ 
 tempted to use them for packing wood in and ore out 
 of the mining camps. Several were taken over the 
 Mexican line for use on the Sonora deserts, but were 
 never successful. Occasionally prospectors report cam¬ 
 els in the mountains, and there are probably several 
 survivors wandering around. Three or four years ago 
 a fine specimen was shot in the foot hills near Harqua 
 Hala, and the skeleton is still lying near the trail. 
 The Indians regard the ungainly beasts with horror 
 and superstitious awe, and a wierd gray camel, wearing 
 
8 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 
 a weather-worn saddle, is a prominent character in 
 frontier mysteries. 
 
 The Earth as the Home of Man. 
 
 It is held by some that the earth was made and 
 exists primarily to furnish a home for the human race. 
 Others argue that man exists on this planet, holding on 
 as it were by a precarious grasp in spite of untoward 
 conditions, and that on the whole the preponderance of 
 conditions is unfavorable to the race. However this 
 may be it is interesting to note how very small a part 
 of the planet is habitable for man. 
 
 The deepest mines extend about a mile below sea- 
 level; the highest inhabited spot, the custom house at 
 Ancomasca, Peru, is about 16,000 feet above the sea. 
 Hence the vertical extent of man’s occupancy of the 
 earth is only four miles $ and as this includes the ex¬ 
 tremes, it is evident that a layer two miles thick con¬ 
 tains the dwelling places of nearly all human beings. 
 On an eight-inch globe this would be represented by a 
 covering of paint or of thin tissue paper. In horizontal 
 extent also, man’s home is narrowly circumscribed. 
 Subtract the water surface, the vast uninhabitable polar 
 regions, the desert plains and the inaccessible mountain 
 tracts and there remains only about one^tenth of the 
 surface which is available. Probably not more than a 
 half of this tenth is of a quality favorable to the highest 
 development of man. 
 
IN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 9 
 
 Dissected Maps. 
 
 What does a map teach ? 
 
 The usual answer is that it teaches facts of position, 
 direction, form, and area; and, in the main this is right. 
 The facts pertaining to drainage slopes and comparative 
 elevation which may be taught from ordinary flat maps 
 are acquired not directly but by inference from the four 
 fundamental concepts above noted. 
 
 But pupils often learn to distinguish states and 
 countries by the particular color in which they are rep¬ 
 resented, and thus they miss the best lessons which the 
 map should impart. 
 
 To get the best results from map exercises three 
 things are necessary: (1) No colors should be used. 
 (2) The map should be easily separable into the states 
 or individual countries which it represents, and (3) It 
 should be possible to shift separate states or countries 
 readily to different positions. 
 
 To illustrate : Suppose a pupil is able to name at 
 sight any one of the United States or of tho countries 
 of Europe when pointed out at random on the map; 
 this is no evidence that he has learned the shape of each, 
 or that he has an adequate or even approximate notion 
 of the comparative size of the states or countries. To 
 test this, take, say the state of Washington, from a dis¬ 
 sected map, without color or details of rivers, cities, etc., 
 and place it in the upper right-hand portion of a space 
 
10 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 
 large enough to hold the United States, on the same 
 scale, and the pupil will probably not be able to name 
 it. This shows that he does not recognize it by shape; 
 he does not have a clear concept of its form. He names 
 it when pointed out on the whole map because he asso¬ 
 ciates it with a certain position, and with other adjoin¬ 
 ing forms, perhaps also with a certain color. 
 
 Again, ask which is the larger, Pennsylvania or 
 Kansas. Most pupils will answer that they are about 
 equal in area. This error originates in the fact that 
 being similar in form and never seen in juxtaposition, 
 but with many other states intervening, the mind car¬ 
 ries the impression of similarity of shape and assumes 
 similarity of size. But place them side by side, and the 
 fact that Kansas is nearly twice as large as Pennsyl¬ 
 vania comes as a surprise and will remain as a perma¬ 
 nent mental possession. 
 
 Massachusetts does not seem a very small state as 
 the pupil compares it in thought with its neighbors, 
 New Hampshire, Vermont and Connecticut, and even 
 the great disparity between Massachusetts and Califor¬ 
 nia is not adequately realized because there lies between 
 them “a sweep continental.” But place Massachusetts 
 on California and let the pupil see that nineteen states 
 the size of Massachusetts could be cut from California, 
 with scraps enough left to more than equal the size of 
 Khode Island, and he has a lesson in comparative area 
 that will not soon be forgotten. Or put one end of 
 
IN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 11 
 
 California on Boston, swing it around as a radius, and 
 note the position of Charleston, Chicago, Lake Superior 
 and Hudson Bay with reference to the circumference 
 described. 
 
 But how can class exercises be devised that will en¬ 
 able the teacher thus to bring side by side the different 
 states ,and countries, or to superimpose one on another ? 
 
 The dissected map alone will not accomplish the 
 end; for class drill there must be a surface to which the 
 parts of the map will adhere in a vertical position and 
 from which they can easily be detached. 
 
 Having the movable dissected map and a surface to 
 which the parts will adhere in a vertical position and 
 from which they are readily detached, the following 
 exercises will be found very valuable for fixing the form 
 and relative size of the states in the Union and their 
 direction from one another, boundaries, etc. 
 
 To fix the shapes of the states, drill until the pupils 
 readily name each state at sight, on whatever part of 
 the board it may be placed. Call attention to peculiar¬ 
 ities in form; for example, 
 
 Elephant’s trunk—Eastern projection of Massachu¬ 
 setts. 
 
 Jumping frog—West Virginia. 
 
 Arm chair—Louisiana. 
 
 Big Boxing-glove—Lower peninsula of Michigan. 
 
 Little Boxing-glove—Rhode Island. 
 
 Prostrate Camel—Virginia. 
 
12 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 
 Old woman stooping over—the group Mississippi, 
 Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky and Wisconsin. 
 
 “Pan-handle” forms—West Virginia, Oklahoma, 
 Idaho. 
 
 Triangular states—New Hampshire, Vermont, 
 New York, South Carolina, Illinois, Virginia. 
 
 States with little corner projections—Pennsylvania, 
 Missouri, New Mexico, Mississippi, Alabama, 
 
 States with corners cut out—Washington, Utah, 
 Nebraska, Georgia, Wyoming. 
 
 Lessons on Comparative Areas: Some lessons of 
 this kind are suggested in the introductory paragraphs 
 above. The ingenious teacher will readily devise 
 others. The old method of teaching comparative area 
 by having the number of square miles memorized was 
 burdensome and fruitless. Bv means of the concrete 
 
 %j 
 
 illustrations, which the dissected map affords, approx¬ 
 imate comparative areas can be learned, so that they 
 will be held easily and by means of exercises that are 
 
 in themselves a pleasure to the pupils. The whole 
 secret of doing this lies in bringing into close proximity 
 the areas compared. 
 
 Bounding States: Place on the board any state 
 and call on the pupils to select from the box and place 
 around it the bounding states. Then vary the exercise 
 in this way: place on the board, say Missouri. Pick 
 up in turn Oklahoma, Arkansas, Nebraska, Mississippi, 
 Indian Territory, Tennessee, etc., and let the pupil pass 
 
IN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 IB 
 
 on it with “yes” or “no.” What other state besides 
 Missouri has eight bounding states ? 
 
 Position and Direction: Place some state, as Ne¬ 
 braska, on the board, and let the pupil place Ohio, Geor¬ 
 gia, Oregon or Wisconsin in what he thinks the right 
 relative position to Nebraska. Now let him fill in the 
 intervening states. 
 
 To Make Outline Sketches: Use the dissected 
 parts as patterns; let a pupil draw on separate sheets, 
 one for each member of the class, outlines of the states 
 in the day’s lesson, to be filled in during the class recita¬ 
 tion with rivers, cities, etc. 
 
 Rulers’ Salaries. 
 
 The pay of rulers is governed by no apparent rule 
 of proportion, unless it is that the pay increases with 
 the liability to assassination. The extremes of salary 
 are illustrated in the case of the Czar of Russia and the 
 President of Switzerland. The former gets $24,000 a 
 day, while the latter gets $7.92 a day. These figures 
 are based on 365 days in the year, for monarchs are 
 supposed to be always working. 
 
 These executives—of Russia and Switzerland—are 
 at the extremes of the rulers 7 payroll, the first getting 
 $8,766,000 a year and the other $2,900. Between these 
 extremes the other eleven nations are scattered in a hap¬ 
 hazard manner, with no uniform relation between the 
 amount of yearly salary and the number of persons who 
 
14 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 
 must pay it. The Emperor of Austria., who has 
 $4,380,000 annually comes under the Czar of all the 
 Kussias, while President McKinley, with his $50,000, 
 comes next above the president of little Switzerland. 
 After Austria comes Germany, which pays Emperor 
 William $3,400,000; then the King of Italy, with 
 $2,435,000; Shah of Persia, $2,335,000; Queen Vic¬ 
 toria, $1,875,000; King of Belgium, $632,000; King 
 of Norway and Sweden, $560,000; Queen of the Neth¬ 
 erlands, $292,000; King of Greece, $263,000, and the 
 President of France, $239,000. President Faure re¬ 
 ceives but little more regular salary than President 
 McKinley, but ’he has fixed perquisites that bring his 
 income from the state to the amount given. 
 
 An idea of the relative proportion between these 
 amounts can be gained if you consider one printed line 
 of this column as representing the salary of the Czar, 
 then a period will represent that of the President of 
 Switzerland, and one-fourth of the letter n the pay of 
 President McKinley. Half a line will be the amount 
 the Emperor of Austria receives, and a little more than 
 a fifth of a line what Great Britain pays to Queen Vic¬ 
 toria. 
 
 The amounts of the salaries of these men and 
 women bear very odd relations to the number of persons 
 for whose benefit they are supposed to administer laws 
 of their own or the people’s making. Each subject of 
 the Czar has to pay annually 7 4-5 cents to his ruler, 
 
IN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 15 
 
 and stands eighth on the list; while the Persians, each 
 of whom mnst yearly pay to the Shah 30 3-4 cents, head 
 it. Switzerland, with the smallest population and sal¬ 
 ary, does not pay the least per capita, for the United 
 States, with 7-lOOths of a cent for each inhabitant, is at 
 the bottom of the list. Switzerland being next above, 
 with 8-100ths of a cent. Turkey, with 20 cents for 
 each subject, naturally comes below Persia, and Greece, 
 with 11 2-5 cents, comes next. Then in the descending 
 scale, comes Austria, with 10 2-5 cents for each subject 
 to pay to the ruler; Belgium, 10 1-5 cents; Italy, 9 
 cents; Norway and Sweden, 8 cents; then Russia, then 
 Germany, 6 3-5 cents; Holland, 6 1-5; France, 5; Great 
 ^Britain, 4 3-5, then Switzerland and the United States. 
 
 From the Known to The Belated Unknown* 
 
 For the teacher who is wise enough to see it, there 
 is a rich lesson in the story told by Mrs. Ctitler of a high 
 school girl who, having become interested in geology, 
 thought to use her knowledge as the basis of bed-time 
 tales for her little brother: 
 
 “Would Robbie like to have each night a part of a 
 great, long story, all about how the earth was made V’ 
 she asked one evening. “P’raps so,” he answered. 
 “Will you tell how the sidewalks were made ?” 
 
 “Oh, yes!” replied his sister, “only we want to know 
 first how the ground was made to lay the sidewalk on.” 
 
 Night after night the story went on while Robbie 
 
16 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 
 showed varying degrees of interest, but never so much 
 as his sister had expected. Now and then he would ask 
 a question about the sidewalks, showing that his inter¬ 
 est was centered on that with which he was acquainted 
 in experience. They were his “point of contact” with 
 earth structure. It was because he hoped to learn 
 something about how the sidewalks were made, that he 
 was trying to listen patiently to all the rest of the story. 
 
 Years afterwards, when our schoolgirl had grown 
 wiser, she learned how abnormal and unsatisfying had 
 been her method,—that she ought to have begun with 
 what the child already knew something about and was 
 interested in, and thence she could have led him whither 
 she would. To the high school girl, the sidewalks were 
 laid on the ground; to the child, the ground was hidden 
 under the sidewalks. 
 
 Forming Correct Concepts in Geography. 
 
 The chief value of “home geography” or the study 
 of the earth’s surface at first hand is: (1) The child 
 thus comes to interpret maps intelligently, for maps to 
 a child properly guided in the exploration and study 
 of his neighborhood are not things in themselves, but 
 are merely representative of surface features of the 
 earth. (2) The study of home geography incidentally 
 includes much wholesome nature study. (3) It gives 
 a stock of experimental knowledge or sense-impressions 
 out of which to build mental pictures of the far away 
 
IN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 17 
 
 things which require an exercise of the constructive 
 imagination in order to conceive of them rightly; and 
 without this stock of sense-impressions the imagination 
 has no material out of which to build pictures, for the 
 imagination is not creative. We cannot imagine any¬ 
 thing essentially different from what we have seen, 
 heard, felt, tasted or smelled. 
 
 An intelligent use of pictures will help greatly in 
 this field. Without pictures it would be practically im¬ 
 possible to give the children of North Dakota an ade¬ 
 quate conception of a mountain or of a sea-shore, while 
 the children of Florida need the same kind of help to 
 conceive of snow drifts. The knowledge of a corn field 
 comes in the same way to the children in Manitoba. 
 The pictures in the text-books in geography are not 
 merely to embellish the pages; they are most valuable 
 means of assisting the pupil to see in his mind’s eye 
 things which mere verbal description would not make 
 so plain. 
 
 Those who live in the middle temperate regions are 
 most fortunately situated for teaching geography. A 
 climate which gives all the changes of four seasons, and 
 a landscape presenting the variations of hill, plain, for¬ 
 est, river, lake, etc., has the elements out of which to 
 construct a notion of all lands. The lake extended by 
 imagination until we cannot see across it, and with 
 waves greatly enlarged, will stand for an ocean view; a 
 magnified hill becomes the mountain for purposes of 
 
18 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 
 illustration. A cold day in winter, intensified with 
 snow drifts exaggerated, is a sufficiently realistic pic¬ 
 ture of the arctic regions, while a bit of hard, naked or 
 stony surface with the rays of the sun beating upon it 
 running its temperature up to 100 degrees is a good 
 enough nucleus from which the mind may evolve a no¬ 
 tion of a desert. 
 
 Mrs. Ninette M. Lowater, one of Wisconsin’s most 
 gifted writers, has expressed this thought most beauti¬ 
 fully in the following lines: 
 
 I need not seek the Pole’s eternal snows 
 To learn their wondrous, silent mystery; 
 
 Each year the Arctic hither comes to me, 
 
 Bringing the weird Aurora’s changing rose. 
 
 Dark skies, in which each planet burns and glows, 
 
 Gray dawns, which scarce reveal gray land and sea, 
 
 And noons more drear than night itself can be, 
 
 With chilling winds, which beat with cruel blows. 
 
 Here, too, I know the ardent Tropic’s zone; 
 
 Long days, which melt to nights of ardent flame, 
 
 Lush grasses hiding life unseen, unknown, 
 
 And flying winds, too swift, too light, for name. 
 
 For me the winter wanes and summer dies, 
 
 A traveler whose anchors never rise. 
 
 The Ladrones. 
 
 Few men work. 
 
 8,500 inhabitants. 
 
 Discovered in 1521. 
 
 Pure water abounds. 
 
IN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 19 
 
 A chain of volcanic islands. 
 
 Spain took possession in 1668. 
 
 Mountains range from 1,000 to 3,000 feet. 
 
 Chief products cocoanut and bread fruit. 
 
 The bread fruit grows on a tree as big as our large 
 apple trees. It is round, and grows half as large as a 
 man’s head. When ripe it turns yellow, soft and sweet; 
 but the natives take it green, and bake it in an oven 
 until the rind is black. This they scrape off and eat 
 the inside, which is soft and white like the inside of 
 new-baked bread, having neither seed nor stone. This 
 fruit is in season eight months in the year, and the na¬ 
 tives feed upon no other sort of bread during that time. 
 
 A Lesson on Area and Direction. 
 
 Write answers to the following questions and test 
 yourself on the correctness of your notions of compara¬ 
 tive area and direction. 
 
 (1) Which is larger— 
 
 (a) Texas or Australia? 
 
 (b) Madagascar or Iowa? 
 
 (c) Lake Superior or the Caspian Sea? 
 
 (2) Name the largest state east of the Mississippi. 
 
 (3) Which extends farther south, Africa or South America ? 
 
 (4) Is the greater part of Africa north or south of the 
 equator ? 
 
 (5) Should you make a journey due east from your home, 
 what transatlantic country would you reach? 
 
 (6) What part of South America would a traveler come to 
 who should go due south from Detroit, Michigan ? 
 
20 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 
 Now write after your answers to (a), (b) and (c) 
 a figure which shall indicate the times as large . 
 
 If your answers to all these are approximately cor¬ 
 rect you have done better than teachers generally in 
 institute classes are able to do. The writer has had 
 teachers in many counties of several states write an¬ 
 swers to the above; about one-third report Texas larger 
 than Australia, and very few estimate Australia as more 
 than twice as large as Texas. Not one in fifty thinks 
 the Caspian is as large as the combined area of the 
 Great Lakes, and nearly all are surprised when told 
 that all the Great Lakes together are only about half as 
 large as the Caspian. Usually a majority say New 
 York is the largest state east of the Mississippi. 
 
 In teaching comparative area much use should be 
 made of the globe, because on it the maps are all drawn 
 on the same scale. This suggestion will apply also to 
 the teaching of form and position. The appearance 
 and relative size and position of countries as they ap¬ 
 pear on the globe should be fixed as a mental impres¬ 
 sion. The globe should be used much more than merely 
 to teach facts of mathematical geography. 
 
 To remember comparative areas by the interme¬ 
 diary process of holding in mind figures expressing the 
 number of square miles is one of the poorest ways. 
 
IN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 21 
 
 Lake Superior. 
 
 Lake Superior is the. largest body of fresh water in 
 the world. It is water,of wonderful purity which it 
 holds, too; and some time—and in the not very distant 
 future, either—the people who live in the large cities to 
 the west and south will come to this lake to get the 
 water for their homes. It will not be so remarkable an 
 engineering feat to pipe the water of this lake, pure and 
 sparkling and fresh from its cold depths, to these cities 
 which are now struggling with the question of their 
 water supply, and meeting all sorts of difficulties in 
 their efforts to get water fit to drink. 
 
 All down through this thousand feet of blue there is 
 a peculiar coldness. At the very most, the temperature 
 varies through winter and summer not more than six 
 degrees. Winter and summer, this great lake never 
 changes to any appreciable extent, so that if you dip 
 your fingertips in the blue surface on a day in July, or 
 if you test it some day in early winter when you have 
 been out on some belated ice-mailed fishing-smack, or 
 when you have gone out to watch the fishermen spearing 
 their supplies through the thick ice in mid-January, 
 you will find but a trifling difference in the tempera¬ 
 ture. Away down at the bottom, too, there is but little 
 variation in the temperature, for it stands at nearly 
 forty degrees F ahrenheit at the bottom, and varies from 
 forty to forty-six degrees, winter and summer, at the 
 
22 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 
 surface. The other great lakes, though cold, are not in 
 this respect like Superior. 
 
 The whole bottom of the lake is believed to be a 
 strong rock basin, though it would seem that there must 
 be great springs at the bottom to keep up the enormous 
 volume of water. Prom the north there is a large 
 amount of water pouring into the lake year in and year 
 out; the swift-rushing, narrow banked Nipigon and 
 other streams furnishing no small part of the supply. 
 These streams in a large measure make up the loss from 
 the surface. One of the old lake captains—a bronzed, 
 kindly-faced man who had been for thirty-five years on 
 the lakes, and had faced death many a time in the 
 frightful storms which sometimes sweep across these 
 beautiful bodies of water, told me, as we were passing 
 along one day near the north coast of Superior, with the 
 headlands and inlets and glossy green bluffs of that 
 most picturesque shore in full view, that the theory that 
 the lake was slowly going down in size was true. He 
 maintained that he could tell from certain landmarks 
 along the shores, with which he is as familiar as he 
 would be with the streets of his old Scottish birthplace, 
 that the lake was slowly—very slowly—but surely re¬ 
 ceding. However, it will be some centuries yet before 
 there will be any appreciable lessening of the Great 
 Lakes, so that we need not be concerned. 
 
 Another interesting and sad thing about this lake is 
 that it never gives up its dead. Whoever encounters 
 
IN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 23 
 
 terrible disaster—happily infrequent in the tourist sea¬ 
 son—and goes down in the angry, beautiful blue waters, 
 never comes up again. From those earliest days when 
 the daring French voyageurs in their trim birch-bark 
 'canoes skirted the picturesque shores of this noble but 
 relentless lake, down to this present moment, those who 
 have met their deaths in mid-Superior still lie on the 
 stone-paved bottom. It may be that, so very cold is the 
 water, some of their bodies may have been preserved 
 through the centuries. Sometimes, not far from the 
 shore, the bodies of people who have been wrecked from 
 fishing-smacks or from pleasure-boats overtaken by a 
 cruel squall have been recovered, but only after the 
 most heroic efforts with drag-net or by the diver. 
 Once, on a trip down the lakes I met a clergyman who, 
 as we passed a point of land some miles before entering 
 the narrowing of the lake at the Soo, pointed out the 
 place where the ill-fated Algoma went down on the reef 
 some years ago; and as he looked, he said slowly: 
 
 “I was at the funeral of one man who went down 
 with her, and the only reason his body is not at the bot¬ 
 tom to-day, with the other thirty-eight that were lost, is 
 because it was caught in the timbers of the vessel, and 
 could not sink.”—St. Nicholas. 
 
24 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 
 A Review Lesson on the Map of Europe. 
 
 Name the twenty cities shown in this map. On 
 what river is each situated? Name three important 
 cities that are omitted and show where they should be 
 indicated on the map. 
 
 There are shown, in whole or in part, ten independ¬ 
 ent monarchies, two republics and four semi-independ¬ 
 ent countries. Point out and name them all. 
 
 Point out and name twenty bodies of water and 
 seven important islands or groups of islands which are 
 shown in whole or in part, 
 
 A simple outline map like this is easily reproduced 
 on the board. When the class have finished the work 
 on Europe as given in the book, spring a surprise on 
 them some morning by placing this sketch on the board 
 
IN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 25 
 
 and see how many can answer all the above questions. 
 If you have taught them by the Tracing and Sketching 
 method this review test will be easy. 
 
 Sandwich Island Food. 
 
 A Sandwich Island boy dines upon bananas, and 
 they cost nothing at all. Bananas in the Sandwich 
 Islands are as cheap as horse chestnuts or acorns are 
 in America. You can have them for the picking. 
 Brought to the tourist on the ships, they cost only three 
 cents for a bunch of five dozen. After the Sandwich 
 Island boy dines upon bananas, he takes figs, with cocoa- 
 nuts and all the oranges he wants. Then, for desert, 
 he has breadfruit, yams, tamarinds and pomegranates, 
 all for the picking. What wonder that the children 
 never ask for candy or sugar in the Sandwich Islands, 
 though there are many sugar factories there! And 
 what wonder that many come to this country and be¬ 
 hold a pie for the first time! 
 
 A Remarkable City. 
 
 1. What city is built on almost as many islands, and 
 has almost as many streets of water as Venice? 
 
 2. Did the sea, as at Venice, leave these ninety 
 islands through natural agencies ? 
 
 3. How is the sea now kept back from this city ? 
 
 4. In winter, what care is taken to avoid the dan¬ 
 ger from the sea ? 
 
26 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 
 5. Why are willow trees extensively cultivated in 
 that country ? 
 
 6. Of what material are most of their houses built ? 
 
 7. Describe their beds in the wall, and their flights 
 of stairs on the outside of their houses. 
 
 8. Dor what are the upper decks of many of their 
 small vessels used ? 
 
 9. Their streets are wide, their three hundred 
 bridges strong, vet the heavy trucking is done in what 
 way ? 
 
 10. Do you see any reasons why they have become 
 an industrious people ? 
 
 11. Can the low lands—the “hollow land”—about 
 their city be so flooded as to keep back an attacking 
 armv ? 
 
 t/ 
 
 12. Has it ever been done ? When ? 
 
 English Translation of Some Geographical 
 
 Names. 
 
 Land’s End, 
 
 Finisterre. 
 
 Lake Bottom, 
 
 Fond du Lac. 
 
 Dog Plain, 
 
 Prairie du Chien. 
 
 Green Hills, 
 
 Vermont. 
 
 Three Hills, 
 
 Tremont. 
 
 Abbot’s Town, 
 
 Abingdon. 
 
 ' Water’s Edge, 
 
 Bordeaux. 
 
 White Oak, 
 
 Albuquerque. 
 
 Bed Castle, 
 
 Alhambra. 
 
 Bear Town, 
 
 Berne. 
 
 Bed Staff, 
 
 Baton Bouge. 
 
 Slinger Islands, 
 
 Balearic Islands. 
 
 Hawk Islands, 
 
 Azores. 
 
 High Land, 
 
 Auverne. 
 
 South Land, 
 
 Australia. 
 
 What-do-you-say, 
 
 Yucatan, 
 
IN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 27 
 
 Hushing Biver, 
 Swampy, 
 
 Clearwater, 
 
 Buck, 
 
 Dry Belt, 
 
 Smoke Vomiter, 
 Park Valley, 
 Foggy Place, 
 Oxford, 
 
 Black Mountain, 
 Grand Biver, 
 
 White Mountain, 
 
 Skunk Town, 
 
 Big Bend, 
 
 Castle Edwin, 
 Stallion Pen, 
 Lion Town, 
 
 Cold Spring, 
 Burnt Face, 
 Hell’s Mouth, 
 Snow Mountains, 
 Burning Pine, 
 Smoked Pipe, 
 Hockland, 
 
 Coiling Snake, 
 Big Foot, 
 
 Sleepy Eye, 
 Whale Islands, 
 Mud Fish, 
 
 Water Neck, 
 Smoky Water, 
 Two Bivers, 
 Bobber Islands, 
 Shallow Biver, 
 Swamp Fort, 
 
 Wisconsin. 
 
 Athabasca. 
 
 Windermere. 
 
 Eau Claire. 
 
 Washita. 
 
 Arizona. 
 
 Vesuvius. 
 
 Valparaiso. 
 
 Chautauqua. 
 
 Bosporus. 
 
 Montenegro. 
 
 Guadalquiver. 
 
 Bio Grande. 
 
 Mont Blanc. 
 
 Weisshorn. 
 
 Sierra Nevada. 
 
 Chicago. 
 
 Tennessee. 
 
 Edinburgh. 
 
 Stutgard. 
 
 Singapore. 
 
 Sandusky. 
 
 Ethiopia. 
 
 Pernambuco. 
 
 Himalaya. 
 
 Potomac. 
 
 Hoboken. 
 
 Penobscot. 
 
 Orinoco. 
 
 Patagonia. 
 
 Iowa. 
 
 Orkneys. 
 
 Panama. 
 
 Niagara. 
 
 Kansas. 
 
 Nashota. 
 
 Ladrones. 
 
 Nebraska. 
 
 Leyden. 
 
28 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 
 A Map Lesson. 
 
 Here are represented in whole or in part sixteen 
 political divisions, twenty-two cities, and over twenty 
 rivers and other bodies of water. Can you name them ? 
 If not, the chances are that your advanced class in 
 geography cannot. A sketch map of this kind placed 
 on the board occasionally makes a valuable drill exer¬ 
 cise. 
 
IN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 29 
 
 A Subterranean City. 
 
 It is generally believed that human beings cannot 
 flourish—in fact, can hardly support existence—with¬ 
 out an ample supply of sun light. Yet. it appears that 
 there is at least one civilized community which gets 
 along very well, although deprived of this advantage. 
 In the salt mines of Wieliczka, in Galicia, a population 
 of 1,000 working people—men, women and children— 
 has dwelt for centuries, in health and contentment, sev¬ 
 eral hundred meters below the earth’s surface. Gal¬ 
 leries extending more than eighty kilometers have been 
 hewn from the glittering mineral, and houses, a town 
 hall, assembly rooms, and even a theatre, built entirely 
 of the same. The little church, with its statues—all 
 of rock salt—is accounted one of Europe’s architectural 
 wonders. Well graded streets are met with, and spa¬ 
 cious squares, lighted by electricity. In some cases, not 
 an individual in successive generations of these modern 
 cave-dwellers has ever beheld the light of day; and yet 
 their average longevity is said to be remarkable. Salt, 
 of course, is unfavorable to the propagation of microbes, 
 and its hygienic properties are proverbial. Could a san- 
 atarium be constructed of this material, we might wit¬ 
 ness surprising results in the treatment of consumption. 
 
 —Popular Science. 
 
30 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 
 A Map Lesson on American Cities. 
 
 Let pupils name each city, body of water, state or 
 country shown in these outline sketches. Draw on the 
 board similar sketches of European cities. The exer¬ 
 cise may be turned into a game by having each pupil 
 make a sketch of some city and its neighboring waters, 
 and the rest of the class name them. 
 
IN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 31 
 
 The DeviPs Pump. 
 
 One of the greatest combinations of natural and arti¬ 
 ficial curiosities on the coast of California is called the 
 Devil’s Pump. The pholas or shell miners, a species 
 of mollusk which excavates immense caverns in the very 
 hardest stone, have tunneled the entire coast in the 
 vicinity of the “pump.” Water rushes into these cav¬ 
 erns with each succeeding tide flow, and in this cylin¬ 
 drical opening some distance from the water’s edge. It 
 is estimated that this hole, which connects with the sea 
 cavern, is 75 to 100 feet in depth. Every time the tide 
 rushes into the cavern beneath, the “pump” throws 
 water to the height of a full 100 feet above the mouth 
 of the opening. The Indians formerly called it by a 
 name which signified “fairy water gun,” but the irrever¬ 
 ent white men have given it the title of the Devil’s 
 Pump, and by that name it will probably be known to 
 future generations. 
 
 Down With the Maps. 
 
 If you want to keep your wall maps neat and 
 clean, have them mounted in close-fitting cases, keep 
 the maps rolled and the cases shut. Kept in this wav 
 they can be preserved for generations. 
 
 To keep the books of a library from getting soiled or 
 otherwise injured, pack them in a case with doors, and 
 keep the doors shut and locked. If the doors are of 
 
32 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 
 glass the books, can be seen by visitors and others, and 
 by keeping the doors locked you can always be sure of 
 having the books arranged in an orderly fashion. 
 
 The carpet and other furnishings of a parlor can 
 also be preserved indefinitely by following the simple 
 recipe, keep out—dont use it. 
 
 But if maps and books are to accomplish the pur¬ 
 pose of their existence, they should be used. The best 
 use which can be made of a good book is to wear it out. 
 Wall maps have this advantage over books: If kept in 
 sight, they can be used without the wear of handling. 
 Besides, the child will get a great deal at odd moments 
 incidentally and even unconsciously from wall maps if 
 they are kept in sight. His eye wanders to the wall 
 and he notes the unbroken coast and great size of Africa, 
 the multiplied indentations of Europe ; Florida, Yuca¬ 
 tan and other projections of North America are salient 
 facts which impress themselves on his memory. The 
 short western slope of South America and the long east¬ 
 ern slope with its immense rivers impress his eye as 
 often as he looks at the map. He sees the map of the 
 United States and cannot resist the silent tuition which 
 it offers. The large water surface of the Great Lakes, 
 with their wide, trumpet-shaped northeastern outlet ; 
 the outlines of his own state and its bounding states; the 
 great Mississippi with its tree-like trunk and branches 
 and its mouth extending into the Gulf; the crocodile, 
 Cuba, crawling out of the Gulf and about to bite the 
 
IN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 33 
 
 left leg of the turtle, Hayti, just ahead; curiosities and 
 coincidences innumerable, as a state that is bounded by 
 eight states, another that has a profile of George Wash¬ 
 ington’s face on its western boundary, a lake that is 
 shaped like a seal—such are a few of the things that the 
 children will learn from maps without being taught. 
 But keep the maps in sight; they may wear out sooner, 
 but when rolled in the case they are of no use whatever. 
 
 A Submarine Mountain in the Middle of 
 the Atlantic. 
 
 Almost at the very centre of the Atlantic ocean— 
 only a trifle north of the equator and about half-way 
 between South America and Africa—is a submarine 
 mountain, so high that, in spite of the immense depth 
 of the sea, it thrusts its peak seventy feet above the 
 waves. This peak, startling from its position, forms a 
 labyrinth of islets, the whole not over half a mile in cir¬ 
 cumference, known as St. Paul’s Bocks. So steep is the 
 mountain of which this lonely resting-place of sea-birds 
 is the summit, that one mile from these rocks a five- 
 hundred fathom line with which soundings were at¬ 
 tempted by Boss on his voyage to the Antarctic, failed 
 to touch bottom. 
 
 Were the bed of the sea to be suddenly elevated to a 
 level with the dry land, St. Paul’s Bocks would be the 
 cloud-capped peak of a mountain rising in sheer ascent 
 
34 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 
 in the midst of a broad plain. They are supposed to 
 have been formed by the same disturbance of nature 
 which separated the Cape Verde Islands from Africa. 
 
 —Gustav Kobbe. 
 
 The Eskimo. 
 
 The name Eskimo means raw fish eater and is given 
 to the northern people in derision, while they style 
 themselves, like “the 400,” Innuit, “the people.” By 
 those who know them best the Innuit are described as 
 a fine race physically, naturally industrious, possessing 
 a marked degree of mechanical skill, lively and full of 
 fun. 
 
 Our geographies used to picture the Eskimos crawl¬ 
 ing into beautifully symmetrical houses of snow blocks, 
 and so we are apt to think of them. But this is far 
 from true; the snow house is seldom used except for a 
 temporary shelter in traveling. Instead, their homes 
 are burrows in the ground. A hole fifteen to twenty 
 feet square is dug and the sides lined with logs. Logs 
 are then laid across the top and on these are heaped 
 smaller sticks with earth and sod over all. A small 
 hole, perhaps a foot and a half square, is left for light, 
 and over this is drawn a piece of seal or walrus intes¬ 
 tine which is transparent. The entrance is sometimes 
 at the side and sometimes in the center of the floor and 
 
IN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 35 
 
 leads through a small tunnel to another room, much 
 like the first, hut smaller, from which a rude ladder 
 leads to the upper air. These huts are below ground, 
 their roofs being but slightly elevated above, the sur¬ 
 rounding land. They are heated by rude lamps, fash¬ 
 ioned like the half of a barrel head, hollowed in the 
 center. Along the rim a kind of moss floating in the 
 oil serves as a wick, while the dripping of seal blubber 
 above the lamp, keeps up the supply of oil. Such 
 houses are always crowded and the atmosphere within 
 is horribly hot and offensive. 
 
 There is but slight difference between the costume 
 of men and women among these people. The Eskimo 
 girl has a fur hood, which is attached to the upper gar¬ 
 ment, drawn about her head; and this same hood forms . 
 a snug nest to put baby brother in when she is playing 
 nurse. Sometimes these fur coats are made of many 
 pieces of different furs, deftly joined (for the women 
 are experts with the needle), and are ornamented with 
 beads, forming a picturesque costume. The boots are 
 of seal skin, with the fur on, and large enough to allow 
 a generous wadding of dry grass to be worn within over 
 the woven grass stockings. 
 
 Such boots are by far the best foot gear for the 
 Arctic, and whaling ships generally stop at some vil¬ 
 lage to get a supply of these for the men. 
 
 When the Eskimo family gather for meals the food 
 is placed in the center of the circle and a vessel of seal 
 
36 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 
 or fish oil near. Every one helps himself, using his 
 fingers and dipping the food in the oil, or else thrusting 
 his fingers in the oil and sucking them. Until recently 
 all their household utensile, spears, harpoons, boats, 
 etc., were made by themselves, but gradually, through 
 intercourse with traders, whaling vessels and mission¬ 
 aries, they are learning the value and use of many arti¬ 
 cles of civilization, and it will probably not be many 
 years before these simple utensils will be common in 
 every Innuit- home.—Dr. Wilbur. 
 
 America One Hundred Years Ago. 
 
 Buttons were scarce and expensive, and the trousers 
 were fastened with pegs or laces. 
 
 Pork, beef, salt fish, potatoes and hominy were the 
 staple diet all the year round. 
 
 The whipping post and pillory were still standing in 
 Boston and New York. 
 
 Two stage coaches bore all the travel between New 
 York and Boston. 
 
 Virginia contained one^-fifth of the whole popula¬ 
 tion of the country. 
 
 There was only one hat factory, and that made 
 cocked hats. 
 
 There was not a public library in the United States. 
 
 St, Louis and New Orleans were Spanish cities. 
 
 There were no railroads, no steamboats, no tele¬ 
 graphs, no Chicago. 
 
IN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 37 
 
 A Bridge 636 Feet High. 
 
 The highest bridge of any kind in the world is the 
 Loe River viaduct, on the Antofagasta Railway, in 
 Bolivia, South America. The place where this highest 
 railway structure has been erected is over the Melo 
 rapids in the Upper Andes, and is between the two 
 sides of a canon, which is situated ten thousand feet 
 above the level of the Pacific. This celebrated bridge 
 is exactly six hundred and thirty-six and one-half feet 
 in height. The length of the principal span is eighty 
 feet, and the distance between abutments (total length 
 of bridge) is eight hundred and two feet. The largest 
 column is three hundred and fourteen feet two inches 
 long. The guage of the road is three feet six inches, and 
 trains cross the bridge at a speed of thirty miles an hour. 
 
 The Countries that Feed the World. 
 
 The following table shows the number of million 
 bushels of wheat raised in the countries named, in 1897 : 
 
 United States . 
 
 .492 
 
 Roumania .. 
 
 . 44 
 
 Russia . 
 
 .387 
 
 Argentina . 
 
 . 37 
 
 Asia Minor . 
 
 .316 
 
 Austria .. . . 
 
 . 33 
 
 France . 
 
 .270 
 
 Bulgaria . 
 
 . 30 
 
 British India . 
 
 .180 
 
 Turkey (Europe) . 
 
 . 28 
 
 Germany . 
 
 .108 
 
 Australasia . 
 
 . 24 
 
 Italy . 
 
 .102 
 
 Belgium . 
 
 . 21 
 
 Spain . 
 
 .101 
 
 Chile . 
 
 . 15 
 
 Hungary . 
 
 . 98 
 
 Algeria . 
 
 .... 13 
 
 Great Britain. 
 
 . 53 
 
 Egypt . 
 
 . 11 
 
 Canada . 
 
 .51 
 
 
 
38 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 
 The States that Feed the World. 
 
 The official report of the grain crop for 1897 will 
 interest the pupils in the geography class. The figures 
 after the name of each state in this list indicate millions 
 of bushels : 
 
 WHEAT. 
 
 
 CORN. 
 
 
 OATS. 
 
 
 Minnesota .. . . 
 
 .. 60 
 
 Nebraska . 
 
 .241 
 
 Iowa . 
 
 .104 
 
 Kansas . 
 
 .. 48 
 
 Illinois . . . 
 
 .232 
 
 Illinois . 
 
 . 93 
 
 Ohio . 
 
 . .. 38 
 
 Iowa . 
 
 . .. ..220 
 
 Wisconsin . 
 
 . 62 
 
 Indiana . 
 
 .. 33 
 
 Missouri . . 
 
 :....172 
 
 Nebraska . 
 
 . 52 
 
 Now take a good look at these states on the map. 
 Remembering that Kentucky and Tennessee are also 
 important grain producing states, we have a mnemonic 
 key to the great grain area. Take Illinois as a center 
 and add the extent of two states in every direction, east, 
 south, west and north. Or take a center in northern 
 Illinois, say about 100 miles west of Chicago, and with 
 a radius reaching to Pittsburg, to Chattanooga or to 
 the Lake of the Woods, draw a circumference ; the circle 
 thus described is the granary of America. 
 
 Across The Andes. 
 
 South America has already three railroads across the 
 Andes; one of them, the newest, is of pre-eminent in¬ 
 terest, and claims for itself the title of Transandine. 
 It connects Buenos Ayres with Valparaiso. It has nine 
 and a half miles of tunnels, one of which is spiral, wind¬ 
 ing around a curve of thirteen hundred feet diameter. 
 
IN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 39 
 
 These tunnels are intended largely to take the place of 
 snow-sheds. The highest of them is three miles long, 
 and ten thousand four hundred and sixty feet above the 
 
 - t j 
 
 sea. 
 
 The entire length from sea to sea is« eight, hundred 
 and eighty-two miles. The scenery is grand beyond de¬ 
 scription. Aconcagua lifts a mighty mass of barren 
 rock and gleaming snow twenty-two thousand five hun¬ 
 dred feet above the sea, and makes an impression of 
 sublime and awful majesty. The route is destined to 
 be much sought by tourists, but its great value will be 
 for commercial purposes. Chiefly it will serve the in¬ 
 terests of the cattle trade. It will largely increase the 
 commerce of Valparaiso. 
 
 The opening of this road will lead to the extension 
 of other roads from north to south along the line of the 
 Andes until almost the entire length of the continent 
 will be traversed, and one will be able to travel in a 
 palace-car from the Caribbean Sea, to Buenos Ayres. 
 Thirty years ago there was hardly a mile of railroad in 
 all South America; now there are over twenty thousand 
 miles of railroad track in operation. 
 
 Other great railroad tunnels are Mt. St. Gothard 
 and Mt. Cenis in the Alps, and the IToosac tunnel, in 
 the northwestern part of Massachusetts. The one under 
 the St. Clair is the greatest tunnel under a river. 
 
40 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 
 The St. Clair Tunnel. 
 
 The St. Clair river is neither long nor very deep, 
 nor is it useful for water power, hut commercially it is 
 the most important river in the world. More vessels 
 and a greater tonnage pass through it each season than 
 through the Suez canal in a year. 
 
 A glance at the map shows that this short river is 
 in the line of a great railway. To span it with a draw¬ 
 bridge would be impracticable. Why? To make a 
 bridge high enough for vessels to go under it would be 
 very expensive. Until a few years ago trains were taken 
 over the St, Clair on a large ferry boat, but in 1892 a 
 tunnel was finished. This tunnel is a big iron tube 
 twenty feet in diameter and over a mile long. How 
 this tube was placed in position under the river is the 
 subject of an interesting article in the Popular Science 
 Monthly for August, 1894. 
 
 Seven hundred men worked for more than a year 
 and a half to make this tunnel, which ranks among the 
 greatest engineering feats of modern times. The top of 
 the great tube is about twenty-five feet below the bottom 
 of the river. 
 
 An average of about six hundred freight cars per 
 day, besides passenger trains, are taken through this 
 tunnel; some days over a thousand are taken through. 
 
 The tunnel cost over two million dollars. Work 
 went on simultaneously from both ends; two immense 
 iron shields, circular in form, being pushed forward by 
 
IN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 41 
 
 hydraulic pressure, the clay being excavated out of them 
 from behind and the permanent iron tubing built in suc¬ 
 cessive sections as they were pushed forward. When 
 the shields came together in the middle they met with¬ 
 out any perceptible variation. One of them had been 
 built on the Canadian, the other on the Michigan side, 
 to avoid the tariff duty; they were both left, in the mid¬ 
 dle of the tunnel where they met, the last section of the 
 iron tube being built through them. 
 
 The designer and builder of this great work is 
 Joseph Hobson, a native Canadian; he ranks among the 
 great civil engineers of the world. 
 
 Highest and Lowest States. 
 
 Every school boy knows which is the smallest and 
 which the largest state in the Union, but how many 
 know which is the lowest and which the highest ? 
 
 According to the recently announced results of 
 measurements and calculations made by the United 
 States Geological Survey, Delaware is the lowest State, 
 its elevation above sea level averaging only sixty feet. 
 Colorado is the highest, averaging sixty-eight hundred 
 feet above the sea., while Wyoming is a close second, only 
 one hundred feet low r er than Colorado. 
 
 In minimum elevation Florida and Louisiana dis¬ 
 pute for second place after Delaware, their average ele¬ 
 vation being, for each, one hundred feet. 
 
42 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 
 Taking the United States as a whole, our country 
 lies slightly above the average elevation of the land of 
 the globe. 
 
 The Great Manchester Canal. 
 
 In a former number of The Quarterly we published 
 an account of the great German canal.* Many teachers 
 of geography found it valuable supplementary work. 
 Let the class now take their maps and note the location 
 of Liverpool and Manchester. The latter is some 
 thirty-five miles inland, but it is now a seaport. 
 
 On the first of January, 1894, was finished one of 
 the greatest feats of engineering skill ever attempted; 
 on that day was opened the great canal extending from 
 Manchester to Liverpool. It was more than ten years 
 in construction, and cost $75,000,000. The difficulties 
 in the way seemed at first unsurmountable. The people 
 of Liverpool were opposed to the building of this canal. 
 (Why?) The railroads leading from Manchester to 
 the sea had an immense traffic and the companies own¬ 
 ing these roads opposed the project with all their influ¬ 
 ence. Some of these lines, as well as several little old- 
 fashioned canals, lay across the route and so had the 
 right of way. These roads had to be elevated and car¬ 
 ried over the great canal on high bridges. One of the 
 little canals is lifted high in air and crosses the big 
 
 * See “Tracing and Sketching Lessons,” No. 1 of The Quarterly, page 16. 
 
IN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 43 
 
 canal in a steel aqueduct swinging on a central pier. 
 This aqueduct full of water and containing a canal boat 
 swings around to let ocean vessels pass through the big 
 canal; the aqueduct extends ninety feet on either side 
 of the central pier, and when full of water weighs 1,400 
 tons. 
 
 During some of the years while this stupendous 
 work was in process of construction, 16,000 men and 
 boys were employed upon it, aided by 100 steam excava¬ 
 tors., 194 steam cranes, 180 steam engines, and 209 
 steam pumps. The city of Manchester furnished $25,- 
 000,000 of the necessary capital, and has a majority of 
 the directors in the government of the canal. 
 
 Oysters in Trees. 
 
 The other day I heard somebody speak of oysters 
 hanging upon the branches of trees on the borders of 
 the Chesapeake Bay.'"' 
 
 “That sounds like a fairy tale,” thought I, “I al¬ 
 ways supposed oysters grew under water. I never knew 
 they hung on trees like apples. A curious sort of oysters 
 those must be which grow on trees along the banks of the 
 Chesapeake!” 
 
 Chesapeake Bay has the finest oysters in the world. 
 The reason they are sometimes found growing on tree 
 branches is this: The spawn of the oyster floats about 
 in the water, tossed by wind and waves. It has the qual- 
 
44 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 
 ity of attaching itself to any solid substance it touches. 
 Sometimes it might be the bottom of a ship, a rock, or a 
 tree branch. The bottom of a ship often needs scraping 
 on account of the shell fish adhering to it. 
 
 The branches of trees often droop into the water. 
 They do it along the borders of the Chesapeake the same 
 as on the banks of any other river or bay. At high tide 
 such branches will be covered with water, and when the 
 tide goes back, the branches come to the surface again. 
 
 The spawn sticks on those boughs when they are be- 
 neath the waves. In a few days the tiny oysters begin 
 to develop, and before long at every low tide the branch 
 can be seen hanging out, with little oysters growing all 
 over it. Sometimes a branch which is often under water 
 will be nearly covered with small oysters. 
 
 They do not grow very large, to be sure. To attain 
 perfection an oyster must be always under water, and 
 these hang half the time out of it. When they are ex¬ 
 posed too long to the hot sun, they die. Their weight 
 often causes them to fall off. 
 
 Little oysters are sometimes transplanted from the 
 beds at the bottom of the bay. They are planted in 
 oyster-beds in other places where, in about two years, 
 they grow to maturity.—Harper’s Young People. 
 
 In the shallowest part this canal is twenty-six feet 
 deep; its width is 230 feet. It will admit the largest 
 ocean vessels with the possible exception of a very few. 
 The sides of the canal through almost its entire length 
 
IN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 45 
 
 are immense docks for the loading and unloading of 
 vessels. 
 
 The chief engineer, Mr. E. Leader Williams, ranks 
 among the great civil engineers of the world. It is 
 worthy of note that the building of ship canals is now, 
 more than ever, gaining favor among industrial and 
 commercial peoples. It is now proposed to make Paris 
 and Brussels seaports by means of ship canals. A few 
 years ago the Clyde was a little stream which in low 
 stages of water might be waded. The city of Glasgow 
 converted it into a ship canal thirty feet deep, which 
 to-day furnishes dockage to an immense traffic, and 
 Glasgow is the second city of the British Empire, a rank 
 which she has attained largely as a result of the build¬ 
 ing of the Clyde canal, on whose banks are now built 
 more steel ships than in any other part of the world. 
 
 A Friday Afternoon Contest at Riffle Creek. 
 
 What middle aged American does not remember 
 with pleasure the old spelling game of “choose up and 
 spell down” which used to brighten a half hour of Fri¬ 
 day afternoon ? It appealed to a motive which was pos¬ 
 sibly not the highest and yet a wholesome and worthy 
 one, the desire to measure strength with one’s fellows 
 and to excel in competition. 
 
 The geography class in Jenkins’ school at Riffle 
 
46 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 
 Creek* had been over the work in Europe as outlined in 
 the Manual, and had reviewed it. One day the teacher 
 said they might have a geography contest. Leaders 
 were appointed to “choose up,” and the rules of the 
 game were explained. Any country, city river, moun¬ 
 tain, lake, etc., might be named by a pupil on one side 
 and the corresponding one on the other side must re¬ 
 spond with one beginning with the last letter of the name 
 given. 
 
 The teacher wrote a list of the names spoken. (Some¬ 
 times he had to write very rapidly.) If a pupil did not 
 respond with fair promptness he said, “Next,” and a 
 point was scored against the side to which the delin¬ 
 quent belonged. Anyone who repeated a name already 
 given was to be counted out and his side lost a point. 
 The first round ran: 
 
 Paris, Seine, Etna, 
 
 Sardinia, England, Alps, 
 
 Antwerp, Denmark, Sweden, 
 
 Po, Kronstadt, Nice, 
 
 Oporto, Turin, Elbe, 
 
 Orleans, North Cape, Elba. 
 
 But thus far it was little more than a word game. 
 Now began the geographical feature of the exercise. 
 On the second round, each had to state enough about the 
 place he named to show that he knew what he was talk¬ 
 ing about, thus : Paris, capital of France, on Seine 
 
 *See Riffle Creek Papers, No, 8 of the Quarterly. 
 
IN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 47 
 
 river. Sardinia, an island west of Italy. Antwerp, a 
 city in Belgium, on the Scheldt river, etc. 
 
 On the third round the teacher pronounced at ran¬ 
 dom from the list, the pupils responding as in the second 
 round. Which side won was determined from the tally- 
 sheet and announced; then all wanted to try it again. 
 
 But what were the younger pupils who did not study 
 geography doing meanwhile ? They were listening, 
 looking, eagerly intent on the outcome, to see which side 
 would beat. And wasn’t that a very good way for them 
 to spend a half hour ? Jenkins thought it was, and they 
 enjoyed it. 
 
 A Remarkable River. 
 
 The St. Lawrence is the only river in the world that 
 never has any floods. The reason is not hard to find 
 by one who has learned to study maps intelligently. It 
 is two-fold: First, the river is fed from a group of 
 lakes, which form by far the largest reservoir of fresh 
 water in the world; the surface of this reservoir being 
 so great that the rains in summer, the melting of the 
 snow in the spring and the droughts of summer and 
 autumn vary its level but slightly. Second, the land 
 area drained into this vast reservoir is comparatively 
 small, in some places, notably along the south shore of 
 Lakes Erie and Superior and the west shore of Lake 
 Michigan, the water-parting is within from six to fifty 
 miles of the shore. On account of these causes the 
 
48 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 
 variation in the height of the St. Lawrence produced by 
 drought, rain or melting snow is only about a foot. 
 Sometimes, however, its flow is affected more than this 
 by wind and ice. 
 
 Draw a line around the head waters of all the tribu- 
 utaries of the St. Lawrence, and another around those 
 of the Mississippi, and observe how these basins com¬ 
 pare in size and shape. Which has the greater depth 
 of rainfall ? Which the greater total aggregate of rain¬ 
 fall ? Which of these rivers discharges the greater 
 amount of water ? If an inch of rain should fall on 
 Lake Michigan and the same amount on an equal area 
 of Illinois, in which case would the greater amount of 
 the water be discharged into the ocean ? Is it possible 
 that a smaller amount of rain (and snow) may fall in 
 the St. Lawrence basin than in the Mississippi and yet 
 the St. Lawrence discharge more water into the ocean ? 
 
 Sponge Fishing. 
 
 There are at present but four centers of sponge sup¬ 
 ply and distribution known to the commercial world, 
 and of these the most important is Key West. In the 
 waters tributary to this port the sheeps’-wool, which 
 outranks all others as a general utility sponge, attains a 
 perfection of form and texture unknown elsewhere, 
 Here are to be found any number of sailors, trained to 
 the business from boyhood. Thus the American sponge 
 
IN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 49 
 
 industry, although only about sixty years old, already 
 leads the world in the volume of its business, the equip¬ 
 ment of its vessels, and the intelligence with which it is 
 conducted. 
 
 Arrived at what he fancies may prove a profitable 
 ground, the captain of a sponging schooner sends out a 
 boat to investigate, meantime standing off and on until 
 a discovery is reported. Then all hands, save only the 
 cook, or, if it is a large vessel, the captain and cook tum¬ 
 ble into the small boats and the fishing—if fishing it can 
 be called—is begun. 
 
 The vessel has towed astern just half as many boats 
 as she lias men in her crew, and two men are assigned to 
 each boat. One of them stands well aft and sculls with 
 a long oar, while the other bends low over one of the 
 gunwales, and with his head buried in a water-glass 
 eagerly scans the bottom as he is moved over it. The 
 water-glass is simply a wooden bucket, having a glass 
 bottom that is held an inch or so below the ruffled sur¬ 
 face. In these clear waters it plainly reveals all sub¬ 
 merged objects to a depth of forty or fifty feet. As a 
 further aid in overcoming ripples or moderate waves, 
 each small boat is provided with a bottle of oil so hung 
 over the bow as to slowly drip its contents into the water. 
 
 Through his glass the observer sees darting fish, 
 richly tinted sea-fans and feathers, branching coral, 
 gorgeous anemones, bristling sea-porcupines and the 
 myriad other curious tenants of these tropic waters. 
 
50 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 
 While seeing these he makes no sign, until a small dark 
 object that, to the untrained eye, differs in no respect 
 from the loggerheads surrounding it, comes within his 
 range of vision. Then, without removing his gaze, he 
 reaches for the long-handled sponge-hook or rake lying 
 behind him, and using it with one hand, quickly tears 
 from the bottom a black, slimy mass, that he triumph¬ 
 antly pronounces to be a sheeps’-wool or grass sponge of 
 the first quality. 
 
 Where Is Our Parallel of Latitude? 
 
 Many teachers tell the pupils if they face toward 
 the north and raise the extended arms until they are 
 horizontal the right hand will point towards the east 
 and the left hand will point towards the west. Let us 
 see if this is true. 
 
 Let us select a point in 40° north latitude for our 
 point of observation. (See figure 1.) 
 
 If a boy stands with his face to¬ 
 ward the north and extends the 
 ^ arms at right angle to the body and 
 to the meridian, also, his feet will 
 point toward the center of the 
 earth as indicated by the dotted 
 line C D. ISTow if a plane be 
 / passed through the boy’s feet at 
 right angles to the meridian and 
 extended indefinitely, the boy’s hands and head and also 
 
IN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 51 
 
 the center of the earth will lie in that plane. The plane 
 will also cut a point in 40° south latitude diametrically 
 opposite the boy’s feet. 
 
 We may readily see from this that if the boy fol¬ 
 lowed the direction indicated by his right hand, he 
 would be on the equator when he had gone only one- 
 quarter of the distance around the earth, having gone 
 south 40° instead of due east. 
 
 Any teacher may make this very plain to a seventh 
 or an eighth grade pupil by using an orange to repre¬ 
 sent the earth and proceeding as follows : Stick a pin 
 into the orange at the stem end and another pin at the 
 point where the blossom dropped off. Let these two 
 pins represent the poles of the earth. Now tie a thread 
 tightly around the orange midway between the poles 
 for an equator. Cut a piece of paper as in figure 2 and 
 
 draw two lines across the paper at 
 ; ; right angle to each other (A B and 
 
 : CD in the figure). Now stick a 
 
 : • pin through the point of intersee- 
 
 • I tion of these two lines and into the 
 
 • : orange at any convenient point be- 
 
 ' l - —JS tween the equator and one of the 
 
 .i f . 
 
 | ! fty z poles. Turn the paper around 
 
 ; • until the line C D points toward 
 
 i j the pole. 
 
 ' ‘ Tie a thread around the orange 
 
 at right angle to the line C D and 
 
52 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 
 slip it until it coincides with the line A B. This string 
 will represent the plane of the boy’s hands or the arms 
 of a guide post and will be found to cross the equator 
 at two points one-fourth of the way around from point 
 of starting. If we use a guide post on the surface of 
 the earth we have the same fault. The arms represent¬ 
 ing east and west will point too far 
 toward the south. We may readily 
 remedy the fault, however, by tip¬ 
 ping the post toward the equator 
 through an angle just equal to the 
 latitude of the foot of the post. 
 (Fig. 3.) This will make the arm 
 indicate a line exactly parallel to 
 the equator at all points and 
 consequently true east.—Edward Jerry. 
 
 Some Interesting Facts about Cities. 
 
 No horses are used in Venice. Why ? 
 
 Most cities are on large rivers or on the sea-coast. 
 Why? 
 
 Indianapolis and Denver are notable exceptions to 
 the general rule, and are the largest inland cities in the 
 United States. 
 
 In New Orleans, the sewerage runs not in under¬ 
 ground pipes, but in open gutters at the sides of the 
 streets, the houses have no cellar basements, and in the 
 cemeteries no graves are dug. Why ? 
 
IN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 53 
 
 Stockholm is sometimes called the Venice of the 
 North; it is built partly upon islands. 
 
 In Philadelphia and Milwaukee a larger proportion 
 of the people own the houses they live in than in any 
 other of the large American cities. 
 
 Liverpool and London are the heart of the world’s 
 commerce. From one of these cities one may take ship 
 to a greater number of ports than from any other city. 
 Liverpool is the center of the land hemisphere. 
 
 Most of the important cities of the world lie between 
 the 30th and the 60th degrees of north latitude. 
 
 There is at present a striking and, as some believe, 
 an alarming disposition for population to collect in large 
 cities. The increase of machinery encourages this. To 
 illustrate: Before the twine binder was invented it re¬ 
 quired a force of seven or eight men to reap a field of 
 grain. Now one man does the work and the other seven 
 seek employment in the city; some of them making the 
 machine which threw them out of employment. 
 
 The government of great cities is the most difficult 
 problem of modern politics. 
 
 The Hottest Spot on Earth. 
 
 The hottest region on the earth’s surface is on the 
 southwestern coast of Persia, on the border of the Per¬ 
 sian gulf. For forty consecutive days in the months of 
 July and August the mercury has been known to stand 
 
54 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 
 above one hundred degrees in the shade night and day, 
 and to run up as high as one hundred and thirty degrees 
 in the middle of the afternoon. 
 
 At Bahrin, in the center of the most torrid part of 
 this most torrid belt, as though it was nature’s intention 
 to make the place as unbearable as possible, water from 
 wells is something unknown. 
 
 Great shafts have been sunk to a depth of one hun¬ 
 dred, two hundred, three hundred, and even five hun¬ 
 dred feet, but always with the same result—no water. 
 Notwithstanding this serious drawback a comparatively 
 numerous population contrives to live there, thanks to 
 copious springs which burst forth from the bottom of 
 the gulf more than a mile from the shore. The water 
 from these springs is obtained in a most curious and 
 novel manner. 
 
 “Machadoes,” whose sole occupation is that of fur¬ 
 nishing the people of Bahrin with water, repair to that 
 portion of the gulf where the springs are situated and 
 bring away with them hundreds of skin bags full of 
 w 7 ater each day. The water of the gulf where the springs 
 burst forth is nearly two hundred feet deep, but these 
 “maehadores” (divers) manage to fill their goatskin 
 sacks by diving to the bottom and holding the mouths of 
 the bags over the fountain jets; this, too, without allow¬ 
 ing the salt water to mix with it. 
 
 The sourse of these submarine fountains is thought 
 to be in the hills of Osmond, four or five hundred miles 
 
IN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 55 
 
 away. Being situated at the bottom of the gulf it is a 
 mystery how they were ever discovered, but the fact re¬ 
 mains that they have been known since the dawn of his¬ 
 tory. 
 
 Mammoth Cave. 
 
 BY H. E. DANKOLER, MILWAUKEE, WIS. 
 
 Of the “seven wonders of the world/ 5 Mamoth Gave 
 is the greatest; almost any book of reference will furnish 
 a description of it, but the record and impressions of a 
 visitor there may prove interesting. 
 
 Our party arrived at Glasgow Junction, Ky., at six 
 o’clock in the evening, and from there we made a ride 
 of about eight miles on a dummy line. Arriving at the 
 cave, we were hurried through supper, provided with 
 overalls, then waited for the ladies, who were slower in 
 getting on their bloomers (which all lady visitors wear) 
 and the guide gave each of us an open oil lamp which 
 smoked and smelled bad. 
 
 Two hundred feet from the opening the passageway 
 narrows to about ten feet square and here is a grated 
 gate, heavily barred. This is unlocked, we pass through 
 the key is again turned, and we start on our journey. 
 
 Entering the grand rooms, the first emotion felt is 
 one of mute wonder. At every turn are queer shapes 
 and grotesque figures; and objects of the outer world 
 are imitated by nature to such minuteness as to excite 
 our amazement. Here are fluted columns of stalactite 
 
56 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 
 and stalagmite formation, and the reflection of our lights 
 throws out millions of sparkling rays. 
 
 “Josh, the Faithful Guide,” as he is called, is a jolly 
 soul, and as he leads the way he explains the different 
 sights and gives us the benefit of his stereotyped jokes 
 and puns. He shows where the miners worked for salt¬ 
 peter to be used in the war of 1812. The ground is rich 
 in nitre, and in the now hard soil—almost like a rock— 
 you may see the hoof marks of oxen made nearly a cen¬ 
 tury ago. There, also, are the hollowed trees, extend¬ 
 ing for hundreds of yards into the cave, used for con¬ 
 veying water to the operatives. 
 
 For the first half mile the ceiling is covered with 
 bats, hanging by their feet, in a dormant condition. 
 After feeding for five months outside they come by mil¬ 
 lions into the cave to hibernate for the remaining seven 
 months. 
 
 “Do you see the rock over there that is wedged into 
 that opening? It is called Suicide Rock,” said the 
 guide. 
 
 “Why ?” ventured one of us. 
 
 “Because it hung itself.” 
 
 “Here is a wonderful formation,” again resumed 
 our leader. “You see that stalactite hanging down, and 
 below you see the stalagmite. To give you an idea of 
 how many years it took to form, it is only necessary to 
 mention that it requires a thousand years, for one inch 
 to accumulate and you see this is several feet in dia¬ 
 meter.” 
 
IN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 57 
 
 Soon the guide caught a perfectly white cricket and 
 explained to us the difference between underground and 
 above-ground life. All animals below ground are more 
 delicate and almost transparent. 
 
 The subject turned to finding our way out alone. 
 The guide said no person living could do so except by 
 long practice, and that he had gone with other guides 
 six months before he had ventured to take a party in. 
 Then he related how he once had a civil engineer among 
 a party and the engineer proposed to make a back cut 
 and meet the party at another level. The guide remon¬ 
 strated with him, but it was no use. 
 
 “I want you to understand/ 5 said the civil engineer, 
 “that I can go back any road that I have so recently 
 traveled. I 5 m a civil engineer !” 
 
 The guide said no more, and the civil engineer (and 
 a friend who shared his confidence) set off to reach their 
 destination by a different route. The guide asked his 
 party to remain where they were a short time, so that he 
 could follow the two men, declaring that they would 
 soon be lost in one of the numerous branches. Sure 
 enough, the men went wrong and the guide soon found 
 them, greatly frightened, at the sudden ending of one 
 of the branching avenues. 
 
 We came to some stone houses and were informed 
 that about forty years ago thirteen consumptives thought 
 that owing to the unchanging temperature (55 degrees 
 the whole year) the cave would be a cure for their ills. 
 
58 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 
 They lived there five months, when one of them died ; 
 the others became discouraged and concluded to leave 
 and once more see the blessed sunshine. All of them 
 are now dead, but those who were considered the lowest 
 at the beginning of their underground existence lived 
 the longest. 
 
 At another point we came across many piles of 
 stone, and the guide said they had been made by visitors 
 from different cities, states and countries. Each pile 
 was labeled, and the members of our party augmented 
 the monuments representing their respective states^ 
 cities, colleges, etc. 
 
 At 12:15 o’clock in the morning we emerged from 
 the cave, having traveled, going and coming, about seven 
 miles, which completes the.“short route,” over a road as 
 “rocky as the road to Dublin.” 
 
 At nine o’clock we are ready for the long route, 
 which requires until about six o’clock to complete. It 
 is in a measure a repetition of the other, except that you 
 have a ride on Echo river, where the eyeless fish live. 
 
 So far the cave has been explored one hundred and 
 fifty miles and no one knows how many miles more there 
 are. 
 
 Here are a few of the hundreds of pencilings on the 
 walls around the hotel, made by visitors after paying 
 their bills and while waiting for the dummy to return: 
 
IN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 59 
 
 Of all sad words of tongue or pen, 
 
 The saddest are these: It might have been— 
 Considerably cheaper. 
 
 I have an empty pocketbook; 
 
 And yet my heart is brave, 
 
 For though it took a mammoth pile, 
 
 I’ve seen the Mammoth Cave. 
 
 Life Periods of Animals. 
 
 
 YEARS. 
 
 
 YEARS. 
 
 Bear . 
 
 .20 
 
 Monkey . 
 
 .16 to 18 
 
 Baboon . 
 
 .16 
 
 Nightingale .... 
 
 . 15 
 
 Beaver . 
 
 . 50 
 
 Porpoise.. 
 
 .. 30 
 
 Blackbird. 
 
 .10 to 12 
 
 Parrot . 
 
 ...200 
 
 Camel . 
 
 .100 
 
 Peacock . 
 
 . 20 
 
 Cow . 
 
 .20 
 
 Pelican. 
 
 
 Cat . 
 
 .. 10 
 
 Pigeon .. 
 
 .10 to 16 
 
 Carp . 
 
 .70 to 150 
 
 Pike . 
 
 .30 to 40 
 
 Codfish . 
 
 ...... 14 to 17 
 
 Queen Bee. 
 
 . 4 
 
 Crane . 
 
 . 24 
 
 Rhinocesos . 
 
 .. 20 
 
 Crocodile . 
 
 .100 
 
 Raven. 
 
 .200 
 
 Deer . 
 
 .. . 20 
 
 Redbreast . 
 
 .10 to 12 
 
 Dog . 
 
 . 10 
 
 Rabbit . 
 
 . 7 
 
 Drone . 
 
 
 Sheep . 
 
 .. 10 
 
 Elephant . 
 
 .100 
 
 Squirrel ........ 
 
 . 7 
 
 Eagle . 
 
 .100 
 
 Swine . 
 
 . 20 
 
 Eel . 
 
 .. 10 
 
 Salmon . 
 
 . 16 
 
 Fox ...:. 
 
 . 15 
 
 Skylark .... . 
 
 .10 to 30 
 
 Goose . 
 
 . 80 
 
 Stag. 
 
 
 Goldfinch. 
 
 .20 to 24 
 
 Starling . 
 
 _10 to 12 
 
 Horse . 
 
 . 30 
 
 Swan . 
 
 .200 
 
 Hare. 
 
 . 8 
 
 Tiger, Leopard .. 
 
 
 Hawk. 
 
 .30 to 40 
 
 Titlark. 
 
 .5 to 6 
 
 Hen . 
 
 .10 
 
 Tortoise .. 
 
 ...100 to 200 
 
 Hyena. 
 
 
 Working Bee .... 
 
 .... 6 months 
 
 Lion . 
 
 .25 to 70 
 
 Whale . 
 
 .100 
 
 Llama . 
 
 ____ 15 
 
 Wolf . 
 
 . 20 
 
60 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 
 Through the Earth, not Around It. 
 
 Circles should be thought of as passing not around 
 the earth but through it. These diagrams, reproduced 
 on the board, will help to this conception: 
 
 w 
 
 Observe that in figure I the point of view is directly 
 i n the plane of the prime meridian, hence that circle ap¬ 
 pears as a straight line; in figure II it is in the plane of 
 the equator. 
 
IN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 61 
 
 Shortest Route Around the World. 
 
 New York to Queenstown, Queenstown via Cork, a 
 fast transport across to Holyhead, and the “Wild Irish¬ 
 man to London; London via the Dover and Calais route 
 to Paris; Paris to Brindisi, Italy; Brindisi by steamer 
 to Alexandria; Alexandria by rail to Cairo, and thence 
 to Suez, overtaking the steamer at the latter place; from 
 Suez to Bombay by steamer; Bombay to Madras by rail; 
 Madras by steamer to Halle, Singapore, Hong Kong and 
 Shanghai to Yokohoma; Yokohoma to San Francisco; 
 San Francisco to New York. Making all connections 
 without loss of time, this trip can be made in about ten 
 weeks or less. 
 
 Slope of Hirers. 
 
 The slope of rivers flowing into the Mississippi from 
 the east is on the average about three inches to the mile. 
 Those entering it from the west have an average descent 
 of about six inches to the mile. The average fall per 
 mile of the Missouri after it leaves the mountains is 
 about a foot; the Des Moines from its source to its 
 mouth 7.3 inches. The entire length of the Ohio shows 
 a fall of about five inches per mile. The Mississippi 
 from the mouth of the Ohio to the gulf has a fall of but 
 2| inches to the mile. 
 
Naries of the Great Nations. 
 
IN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 63 
 
 A Few Things in Which South America Excels. 
 
 1. It has the densest and most extensive forests in 
 the world. 
 
 2. It is richer in birds and insects than any other 
 continent. 
 
 3. It has the largest river in the world. 
 
 4. It has the fiercest volcano in the world. 
 
 5. It has the loftiest mountain in the western hem¬ 
 isphere. 
 
 6. It has more volcanoes than any other continent. 
 
 7. It has a volcano which has the deepest crater in 
 the world. 
 
 8. It has more wild cattle and horses than any other 
 continent. 
 
 9. It has the highest lake of any considerable size 
 in the world. 
 
 10. It produces more coffee than any other con¬ 
 tinent. 
 
 11. It has the loftiest volcano in the world. 
 
 12. It is probably the richest mineral region in the 
 world. 
 
 Wettest and Driest Regions. 
 
 The neighborhood of Oherrapunji, just northeast of 
 Calcutta, in India, has the reputation of being the rain¬ 
 iest district on the globe. The mean annual rainfall 
 there is about 490 inches or about twelve times what we 
 have in the United States. In the year of 1861 it was 
 905 inches. In a single month as much as 145 inches 
 
64 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 
 of rain have fallen. For the first five and a half months 
 of 1899 the fall was extraordinary, the precipitation in 
 a single day being over 70 inches, or twice what we have 
 in this country during an entire year. 
 
 The driest region, according to Prof. Fairchild, an 
 English authority, is on the coast of Peru, about 350 
 miles south of the equator. In February, 1899, they 
 had there a drizzle lasting several hours, which was the 
 first rain they had had in eight years. This slight rain 
 brought to life the seeds of a number of annual plants 
 which had lain dormant in the soil for that interval. 
 Only one plant stands the long drouths there—the col¬ 
 ored Peruvian cotton plant. In the United States, Al¬ 
 buquerque, ST. M., claims the distinction of being the 
 sunniest place, though the way the weather bureau puts 
 it is that it is the place of the least rainfall. There have 
 been but two totally cloudy days at that point in three 
 years. 
 
 Nassau’s Big Tree. 
 
 In Nassau, the capital city of the Bahama Islands, 
 they say “the tree in the public square”—not the trees. 
 Now, the public square of Nassau is quite as large as 
 that of most cities of its size, but there is only one tree 
 in it, and that tree literally fills the square and spreads 
 its shade over all the public buildings in the neighbor¬ 
 hood. For it is the largest tree in the world at its base, 
 although it is hardly taller than a three-story house. It 
 
IN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 65 
 
 is variously known as a ceiba, or a silk cotton tree, but 
 the people of the low islands of the West Indies call it 
 the hurricane tree. For no matter how hard the wind 
 blows it cannot disturb the mighty, buttressed trunk of 
 the ceiba. 
 
 In the great hurricane of 1899 all the palms and 
 many of the other trees of Nassau were overturned, but 
 the great hurricane tree, though it lost all its leaves, did 
 not lose so much as a branch. Its trunk throws out 
 great curving, wand-like braces, some of them twenty 
 feet wide and nearly as high. These extend into the 
 ground on all sides and brace the tree against all attack, 
 while the great branches spread a thick shade overhead. 
 In the tropic sunshine of mid-summer, hundreds, even 
 thousands, of people, may gather in the cool of its 
 shadow. No one knows how old the great tree is, but 
 it must have been growing hundreds, if not thousands 
 of years. A very old picture in the library at Nassau 
 shows the tree as big as it is at present, and even the 
 oldest negro in the island cannot remember when it was 
 a bit smaller.—Pathfinder. 
 
 Steam Navagation of African Rivers. 
 
 Much additional information has recently been 
 brought to the surface regarding Africa through the op¬ 
 portunities which are now afforded for access to the in¬ 
 terior. Physically the African continent is in many 
 
66 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 
 respects unique. Five thousand miles in extreme 
 length, and over 4,000 in breadth, its area is greater 
 than that of any other continent except Asia, the latest 
 estimates being 11,874,000 square miles. Its coast for¬ 
 mation is peculiar in the absence of deep indentations, 
 bays or harbors, and the small number of waterways 
 which offer entrance to the interior. The fact that the 
 greater part of the interior is an elevated table land ex¬ 
 tending on all sides to within a short distance of the 
 coast renders access to the interior by the few large 
 streams difficult. At the point where the rivers pass 
 from the elevated plateau of the coast the falls or rapids 
 which there exist prevent navigation, and as a result 
 travel to the interior of Africa by water developed more 
 slowly than in any other continent. Indeed, it was not 
 until the explorations of Livingston, Stanley, Speke, and 
 others developed the true conditions and made known 
 the fact that vast navigable water-stretches were to be 
 found in the interior that it occurred to man to trans¬ 
 port steam vessels around those falls and put them afloat 
 in the waterways of the interior. When these condi¬ 
 tions were clearly established, however, modern ingenu¬ 
 ity and energy soon found a means of transporting 
 steamers in small pieces upon the backs of men through 
 the forests, around the falls and rapids for scores and 
 even hundreds of miles, and putting them together, set 
 afloat the steamers which penetrate thousands of miles 
 into the interior and develop facts never before known, 
 and which could not have been developed by land explor¬ 
 ation in tropical climates and jungles for many genera¬ 
 tions. 
 
in tms group are to oe round the outlines or the maps of three continents, four countries, a penin¬ 
 sula, a large bay, and one of the United States. Hold the page in each case so that the arrow will point 
 up; keep your eye on the outline, disregarding the interior lines of the picture, and the map forms will 
 come into view. 
 
 IN GEOGBAPHY 
 
 67 
 
68 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 
 Tobacco Under Tents, 
 
 Tobacco raisers in Florida have long observed that 
 wherever the weed was grown mostly in the shade, it at¬ 
 tained an unusually great growth. Recently a, New 
 York company in Florida, acting upon this principle, 
 erected an arbor over an acre of land and there planted 
 Sumatra tobacco seed. The result was astonishing, as 
 the tobacco is described as having grown higher than the 
 head of a, man on horseback, the like of which has never 
 been known in Sumatra. As a result of this, hundreds 
 of acres are being grown under cover, and it has been 
 demonstrated that tents like those used by circuses, with 
 openings for a little sunshine, produce the best crops. 
 
 A Review Test. 
 
 Teachers often send pupils to the board to make lists 
 of rivers, cities, capes, etc,, to be found in the review 
 work. The pupil will make up a creditable column of 
 neatly written names, take his seat and receive the ap¬ 
 proval of his teacher, and all seems well. If this were 
 all that is intended, the result would be commendable. 
 But is it ? Is it not possible that the pupil may have 
 simply memorized the names, and knows nothing of the 
 facts to be learned from such a list. Let us apply an 
 eye test. 
 
 Suppose the class to be standing facing the teacher 
 with backs to the board. He says No. 1 may make a 
 list of the cities and products of Maine; No. 2, of Massa- 
 
IN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 69 
 
 chusetts; No. 3, eight rivers of New England; No. 4. 
 cities and products of Pennsylvania. The class turns, 
 and in a minute have written the lists required. 
 
 The teacher says, “Place an arrow at the right of 
 each name to show the location of each object. (In the 
 case of a river the arrow will indicate the direction of its 
 course.) To illustrate: A review of the map of Penn¬ 
 sylvania might appear thus: 
 
 Pittsburg, < - 
 
 I 
 
 Gettysburg, 
 
 Harrisburg, 
 
 Philadelphia, 
 
 Petroleum, 
 
 Hard coal, ^ 
 
 Susquehanna River, 
 
 V 
 
 To show the position more exactly a mark may be 
 drawn across the shaft of the arrow. Thus, in the case 
 of Pittsburg the mark would cross the shaft near the 
 west end, but in the case of Harrisburg a little to the 
 right of the middle. 
 
 This simple test tells at a glance whether the pupil 
 knows the location of a place or not. This is not enough; 
 as yet the teacher cannot tell whether the pupil has asso- 
 
70 
 
 SUPPLEMENTABY LESSONS 
 
 dated a fact with the place studied or not. Suppose a 
 pupil has written this list: 
 
 [ Concord (Granite) 
 
 XT TT , . ! Portsmouth (Seaport) 
 
 New Hampshire. < 
 
 i Manchester (Metropolis) 
 
 [^Nashua (Manufacture.) 
 
 Require a “catch-word” as a test of knowledge of 
 facts. The words in curves may indicate that the pupil 
 remembers some important fact. If the teacher is in 
 doubt about this he should question. 
 
 Output of Rivers. 
 
 Harper’s Young People gives the following table of 
 the hourly quantity of water discharged into the sea, by 
 some of the best known rivers. This table was compiled 
 
 by an expert. 
 
 Rivers. 
 
 Million Cubic 
 feet per hour. 
 
 Rivers. 
 
 Million Cubic 
 feet per hour. 
 
 Amazon . . 
 
 . 3,700 
 
 Nile . 
 
 . 560 
 
 La Plata . 
 
 . 3,100 
 
 Phine . 
 
 . 230 
 
 Mississippi .... 
 
 . 2,070 
 
 Elbe . 
 
 . 100 
 
 Volga . 
 
 . 1,120 
 
 Seine . 
 
 . 80 
 
 Danube . 
 
 . 960 
 
 Thames . 
 
 . 40 ” 
 
 Ganges ... 
 
 . 700 
 
 
 
 A Lesson in Geography and Language. 
 
 The third grade geography class were asked to think 
 of the food on the home table and to ask their mothers 
 about the groceries. Many things were brought in to 
 add to our school collection of grains and groceries. 
 
 Coffee, tea, chocolate, spices, dates and other foreign 
 products were mentioned and the countries in which they 
 were raised pointed out on the maps. 
 
IN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 Chocolate was made a subject of special study for a 
 few days. All the information available concerning it 
 was gathered from books at school and at home. As 
 this information was reported from day to day, it was 
 made the subject of conversation in the class, and some 
 pictures to illustrate the facts were used. So much for 
 the geography. Then came the test not only of the mat¬ 
 ter learned, but of the power to express it; and “Choco¬ 
 late” was a “subject for a composition.” The following 
 outline was written on the board as a guide in the ar- 
 
 rangement of what they were to write: 
 
 CHOCALATE. 
 
 1 . 
 
 What it is. 
 
 2. 
 
 Where it grows. 
 
 3. 
 
 The chocolate tree. 
 
 Bark. Flower's. 
 
 Leaves. Fruit. Seeds. 
 
 4. 
 
 Cultivation. 
 
 The chocolate farm. 
 
 Care of the plants. 
 
 5. 
 
 Gathering the fruit. 
 
 Seeding. 
 
 6. 
 
 7. 
 
 Drying. 
 
 8. 
 
 Packing. 
 
 9. 
 
 To what countries sent. 
 
 10. 
 
 Preparation for use. 
 
 Boasting. 
 
 
 Grinding. 
 
 
 Making into cakes. 
 
 The following description, written by a pupil, indi- 
 
 cates the results of this kind of work: 
 
72 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 
 THE COCOA PLANT. 
 
 “The best cocoa grows in Mexico. The Indians who are very 
 lazy eat the pulp and throw away the seeds. Chocolate is a fruit 
 which grows on a tree. The chocolate has reddish brown bark, 
 its leaves are long and pointed. The flowers are pink, the fruit 
 is oval and pointed. If a man wishes to become rich he plants 
 cocoa trees. To shade the trees he plants banana trees around 
 them. It takes about two years for them to grow. When the 
 fruit is ripe negroes come with forked sticks and pick it. Then 
 more negroes come and carry it to a barn where there are old 
 negroes who take out the seeds with wooden spoons. Then the 
 seeds are put in a hole and covered with sand. The seeds are 
 then taken and put in bags made of buffalo hides. The seeds 
 are then sent to the United States and Europe. When the seeds 
 arrive at these places they are taken and roasted, then crushed 
 between rollers. They are then mixed with a little water and 
 spices and pressed into cakes.” 
 
 Temperature of the Deep Sea. 
 
 The steamer Albatross, of the United States, Fish 
 Commission, after a cruise of fourteen months in the 
 Pacific recently returned to San Francisco. The expe¬ 
 dition made some important discoveries. It was found 
 that with the exception of the Fiji Islands and Tahiti 
 the islands of the South Pacific are inaccurately located 
 on our present maps and charts, most of them being 
 placed from two to twelve miles out of their true posi¬ 
 tion. 
 
 The party discovered that at all depths below five 
 hundred fathoms the temperature is uniform, being 
 thirty-five degrees Fahrenheit. The Albatross suc¬ 
 ceeded in dragging the bottom of the sea at a depth of 
 
IN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 73 
 
 4,200 fathoms j thus breaking the record for deep sea 
 dredging. Heretofore the greatest depth reached was 
 3,000 fathoms; that was in 1876, by the British ship 
 Challenger. 
 
 Population of 
 
 the United 
 
 Alabama . 
 
 ... 1,828,697 
 
 Arkansas . 
 
 . .. 1,311,564 
 
 California . 
 
 . .. 1,485,053 
 
 Colorado . 
 
 . . . 539,700 
 
 Connecticut . 
 
 ... 908,355 
 
 Delaware . 
 
 .. . 184,735 
 
 Florida . 
 
 ... 528,542 
 
 Georgia . 
 
 . .. 2,216,329 
 
 Idaho . 
 
 ... 161,771 
 
 Illinois .. 
 
 ... 4,821,550 
 
 Indiana .. 
 
 ... 2,516,463 
 
 Iowa. 
 
 . .. 2,251,829 
 
 Kansas . 
 
 ... 1,469,496 
 
 Kentucky . 
 
 ... 2,147,174 
 
 Louisiana . 
 
 ... 1,381,627 
 
 Maine .. 
 
 . .. 694,366 
 
 Maryland . 
 
 .. . 1,189,946 
 
 Massachusetts ... 
 
 ... 2,805,346 
 
 Michigan . 
 
 . . . 2,419,782 
 
 Minnesota . 
 
 ... 1,751,395 
 
 Mississippi . 
 
 . .. 1,551,372 
 
 Missouri . 
 
 ... 3,107,117 
 
 Montana .. 
 
 . ... 243,289 
 
 Nebraska . 
 
 ... 1,068,901 
 
 Nevada . 
 
 42,334 
 
 New Hampshire . 
 
 ... 411,588 
 
 New Jersey .... 
 
 . ... 1,883,669 
 
 New York. 
 
 ... 7,268,009 
 
 North Carolina .. 
 
 ... 1,891,992 
 
 States and Large Cities, 
 
 North Dakota. 319,040 
 
 Ohio . 4,157,545 
 
 Oregon . 413,532 
 
 Pennsylvania . 6,301,365 
 
 Rhode Island . 428,556 
 
 South Carolina. 1,340,312 
 
 South Dakota. 401,559 
 
 Tennessee . 2,022,723 
 
 Texas . 3,048,828 
 
 Utah . 276,565 
 
 Vermont .. 343,641 
 
 Virginia . 1,854,184 
 
 Washington . 517,672 
 
 West Virginia . 958,900 
 
 Wisconsin . 2,068,963 
 
 Wyoming . 92,531 
 
 Total .74,627,907 
 
 TERRITORIES, ETC. 
 
 Alaska (estimated) . 44,000 
 
 Arizona . 122,212 
 
 District of Columbia 278,718 
 
 Hawaii . 154,001 
 
 Indian Territory ... 391,960 
 
 New Mexico . 193,777 
 
 Oklahoma . 398,245 
 
 Abroad in service... 84,400 
 
 Total.. 1,667,313 
 
 Grand total. United States, territories, etc.76,295,220 
 
74 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 
 Chicago . 1,698,575 
 
 Philadelphia . 1,293,697 
 
 St. Louis . 575,238 
 
 Boston . 560,892 
 
 Baltimore.. 508,957 
 
 Cleveland. 381,768 
 
 Buffalo . 352,219 
 
 San Francisco. 342,782 
 
 Cincinnati .. . ... 325,902 
 
 Pittsburg. 321,616 
 
 New Orleans . 287,104 
 
 Detroit . 285,704 
 
 Milwaukee. 285,315 
 
 Washington. 278,718 
 
 Newark. 246,070 
 
 Jersey City . 206,433 
 
 Louisville. 204,731 
 
 Minneapolis. 202,718 
 
 175,597 
 169,164 
 163,632 
 163,572 
 162,465 
 133,859 
 131,822 
 129,896 
 125,560 
 118,421 
 108,374 
 108,027 
 105,171 
 104,836 
 102,979 
 102,555 
 102,479 
 
 Memphis. 102,320 
 
 Scranton . 102,026 
 
 AMERICAN CITIES OF OVER 100,000. 
 
 Greater New York.. 3,437,202 Providence _ 
 
 Indianapolis .. 
 
 St. Paul . 
 
 Kansas City ., 
 Rochester .... 
 
 Denver.. 
 
 Toledo. 
 
 Allegheny City 
 Columbus .... 
 Worcester .... 
 Syracuse ..... 
 New Haven .. 
 
 Paterson_ 
 
 Fall River ... 
 St. Joseph ... 
 
 Omaha. 
 
 Los Angeles .. 
 
 Thirty Cities of oyer half a Million. 
 
 Population. 
 
 London, 1898 . 
 
 New York, 1900.... 
 
 Paris, 1896 . 
 
 Canton (estimated) 
 
 Chicago, 1900. 
 
 Berlin, 1895 . 
 
 Vienna, 1890 . 
 
 Tokio, 1896 . 
 
 Philadelphia, 1900.. . 
 St. Petersburg, 1897 
 
 Moscow, 1897 . 
 
 Tientsin (estimated) 
 Pekin (estimated) . 
 Constantinople, 1885 
 
 4,504,766 
 3,437,202 
 2,536,834 
 2,500,000 
 1,698,575 
 1,677,304 
 1,364,548 
 1,299,941 
 1,293,697 
 ,1,267,023 
 988,614 
 , 950,000 
 900,000 
 , 873,565 
 
IN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 75 
 
 Calcutta, 1891 . 861,764 
 
 Bombay, 1891 . 821,764 
 
 Buenos Ayres, 1898. 753,000 
 
 Glasgow, 1898 . 724,349 
 
 Bangkok, 1898 (estimated). 700,000 
 
 Warsaw, 1897 . ' . 638,209 
 
 Liverpool, 1898 . 633,645 
 
 Hamburg, 1895 . 625,552 
 
 St. Louis, 1900. 575,238 
 
 Cairo, 1897 . 570,062 
 
 Boston, 1900. 560,892 
 
 Brussels, 1897 . 551,011 
 
 Manchester (estimated) . 539,000 
 
 Naples (estimated) . 536,000 
 
 Rio Janeiro (estimated). 522,000 
 
 Baltimore, 1900. 508,957 
 
 A Shifting Divide. 
 
 On the occasion of the opening of the great drainage 
 canal at Chicago, which has made the Chicago river 
 turn round and flow into the Gulf of Mexico, via the 
 Desplaines and Illinois rivers, there has risen a neat 
 little point on the migration of divides. One who now 
 attempts to draw the divide limiting the basin of the 
 Mississippi river on the east, must make a wide detour 
 out into Lake Michigan, circling around a fan shaped 
 area of uncertain radius, focusing on the former mouth 
 of the Chicago river. For what was once the mouth 
 of the river has now become the outlet of the lake, and 
 it is a sight one may witness with a thrill, to watch the 
 earnest gulfward flow of the river, which has been so 
 long a vile and stagnant pool. For there is now a very 
 
76 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 
 marked current, and a strong protest goes up from the 
 pilots and barge men, who have never before had a cur¬ 
 rent to contend with. Several times already a long 
 freight boat has drifted round in the current and lodged 
 crosswise in the narrow stream. Then the great bear- 
 trap dam at Lockport must be closed up, and the flow 
 stopped before the boat may be extricated. 
 
 It will be a long time, it may be years, before the 
 filthy river will have become a healthy stream, and be¬ 
 fore the water of the lake will have become freed from 
 the filth the sewers have been carrying into it so long, 
 so that it will be beyond reproach for household use. 
 And all the while the water which is going over the 
 Lockport dam is furnishing 30,000 horsepower of 
 energy to add to the manufacturing advantages of the 
 great city.—Bulletin American Bureau of Geog. 
 
 Easter Island. 
 
 In the South Pacific ocean, is an island belonging to 
 the Polynesian Archipelago, about thirty miles in cir¬ 
 cumference, and which at its highest point is twelve 
 hundred feet above the level of the sea. This is Easter 
 Island, formerly called Davis’sLand, and has two thou¬ 
 sand inhabitants, who, like all other South sea islanders, 
 are dark skinned. It appears to have been of volcanic 
 origin, but the greater point of interest about it, is, not 
 its people with their habits and manners, but the won¬ 
 derful ruins which are found there. These consist of 
 
IN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 17 
 
 temples, with statues twelve and fifteen feet high, some 
 of them in rows standing on wide platforms of solid 
 masonry. The inhabitants of the island know nothing 
 at all of these ruins, or those who built them. 
 
 Therefore, like many others, they may date cen¬ 
 turies back, and perhaps are prehistoric. They evi¬ 
 dently are the work of a race, that has passed away, and 
 about which we can only conjecture. Who these people 
 were, what they believed, and what they did, are ques¬ 
 tions that, like many others, remain unanswered.— 
 Goldthwaite’s Magazine. 
 
 Heavy Rainfall. 
 
 In May, 1890, at McCausland, Iowa, 3.94 inches of 
 rain fell in one hour; in June, 1871, there fell at Gal¬ 
 veston, Texas, 3.95 inches in fourteen minutes. The 
 record for St. Louis shows one rainfall of 5.05 inches 
 in fifty minutes. At Triadelphia, West Virginia, a 
 few years ago, seven inches fell in fifty-four minutes, 
 and at Alexandria, Louisiana, 21.4 inches in twenty- 
 three hours. 
 
 A Strontian Cave. 
 
 Put-in-Bay Island is one of a group in Lake Erie, 
 midway between Detroit and Cleveland. It abounds 
 in minerals. It is chiefly underlaid with limestone, in 
 which are many small caves. In these caves the water 
 of the lake forms numerous clear pools. Gustave Hei- 
 nemann bought a portion of this island, including a 
 
78 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 
 well which had been drilled to the level of the lake, and 
 a bed of strontianite, partially worked. On examining 
 this well, Mr. Heinemann determined to enlarge it, and 
 in doing so broke into a wonderful circular cavern, 
 walled and overhung with great blue-white crystals of 
 the rare mineral. He has now fitted this grotto and 
 the passages leading to it with electric lights, so that it 
 glitters and sparkles like a fairy palace. It is believed 
 that other caves are awaiting discovery here, and the 
 whole region invites the exploration of scientific men. 
 —Pathfinder. 
 
 Out-door Geography. 
 
 Did you ever see children playing in the soft ground 
 after a summer shower making mud islands ? How de¬ 
 lightfully they were employed in making the world over 
 again! After islands, the merest suggestion will set 
 them to making other natural divisions of land. 
 
 Their attention may be drawn also to the water 
 which everywhere surrounds and indents the land. They 
 have now learned the alphabet of geography. Let them 
 form the land masses as they are arranged on a map of 
 the hemisphere, by filling in part of a shallow pond with 
 loose earth or sand. 
 
 They may further extend their work by strewing 
 pebbles in ridges to represent mountain ranges, and raise 
 or depress the surface to conform to the more marked 
 general features of the land. Cities may be represented 
 
IN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 79 
 
 by clusters of small cubes or blocks, the different races 
 of men by small stakes or images of the prevailing color 
 in the respective countries, the wheat fields by heads of 
 wheat; and samples of cotton, tea, coal, coffee, oranges, 
 etc., may be used to indicate where each of these is pro¬ 
 duced or found. 
 
 Play may thus become deeply instructive. The 
 child’s idea of the world is more tangible. The na¬ 
 tional flag, in its true shape and colors, may be raised 
 over each country. This line of work (or play) may be 
 carried to any desirable extent. The teacher whose 
 school is near a shallow pond—and many of them are in 
 the spring time—may by a little ingenuity direct the 
 out-door play as suggested above, so as to enhance great¬ 
 ly the interest in geography.—Lewis Ostenson. 
 
 [The skilful teacher who “knows when to stop,” can utilize 
 the children’s plays in this way to advantage. Some caution, 
 however, is necessary. The chief caution to be observed in doing 
 work of this kind is that the child is likely to get a very errone¬ 
 ous notion of the comparative size of things. But the wise 
 teacher will find ways to overcome this difficulty.— Editor.] 
 
 Physical Geography and Arithmetic. 
 
 The class was composed chiefly of big boys to whom 
 arithmetic was the synonym of all that is valuable in 
 scholarship. The principal tried to teach them physical 
 geography and natural philosophy, but they liked arith¬ 
 metic better. The season was dry, and the crops were 
 
80 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 
 needing rain. One morning he said to the class, “Mr. 
 Brown said to me yesterday that if he owned the rail¬ 
 road which runs past his farm he would saturate his 
 quarter section with water from Lake Michigan. How 
 long a train would he required to draw the water which 
 falls on a quarter section in a year ?” This was arith¬ 
 metic. But a few factors of the problem were lacking. 
 The first was the depth of the annual rainfall. That 
 was physical geography. They found it to be about 30 
 inches. The solution of the problem began thus : 
 
 160 x 160 No. of sq. rds. in farm. 
 
 160x160x33x33 
 
 --—- == sq. ft. in farm. 
 
 2x2 
 
 160 x 160 x 33 x 33 x 5 __ cu> ft, of water in an- 
 
 2 x 2 x 2 nual rainfall on farm. 
 
 Here was another missing factor, the weight of a 
 cubic foot of water. The text-book on physics was con¬ 
 sulted and the work proceeded. 
 
 160 x 160 x 33 x 33 x 5 x 125 lbs. of water in 
 2x2x2x 2 annual rainfall 
 
 What next ? The capacity and length of a freight 
 car. This was a matter for practical observation. The 
 next day they continued: 
 
 160 x 160 x 33 x 33 x 5 x 125 _ No. of cars 
 
 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 33000 = required. 
 
 160 x 160 x 33 x 33 x 5 x 125 x 36 _Length of train 
 
 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 33000 ^ in feet - 
 
 160 x 160 x 33 x 33 x 5 x 125 x 36 _ Length in 
 
 ” 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 33000 x 5280 ^ 
 
IN GEOGKAPHY 
 
 81 
 
 Canceling eqnal factors from the above they found 
 that the train would be 234 miles long, making a fair al¬ 
 lowance for engines and tenders. So great a work is it 
 to water a quarter section during one year! But they 
 went on: 
 
 234x 4 = Miles of train to water a section. 
 
 234 x 4 x 55000 = Miles of train to water Wisconsin for one year. 
 
 234 x 4 x 55000 _No. G f hours to pass a point 
 
 20 at speed of through freight. 
 
 234x4x55000 
 
 ---—-= Days to pass a point. 
 
 234 x 4 x 55000 __ Years to pass a point count- 
 20 x 10 x 306 mg Sundays and holidays. 
 
 That is, if the train had started when America was 
 discovered and had run 200 miles during every working 
 day since, not quite half of it would yet have passed a 
 given point. And all this immense amount of power 
 to move horizontally the water which falls on Wiscon¬ 
 sin in one year! How inconceivably great then is the 
 force which lifts this great quantity of water into the air 
 and carries it over the continent. The combined force 
 of all the machines which men have made would not 
 equal that represented in the rainfall of one day when 
 the weather bureau reports general rain throughout the 
 country. To produce even a light summer shower, 
 tremendous energy is expended. 
 
82 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 
 How to Make Fewer Classes in Geography. 
 
 Combine them. Arithmetic is a ladder whose first 
 rounds must be climbed before reaching the others. But 
 geography is not so. There is no necessary order in 
 which it must be studied. In a country school there 
 need never be more than one class using the second book 
 or common school geography. Suppose one class studied 
 last year the larger book of any too, book series, and 
 got half through. Another class studied the first book 
 and now at the beginning of the year are about to start 
 in the upper book. Put the two classes together on the 
 last half of the booh . A pupil who is ready to learn 
 about New York, St. Louis and the Rocky Mountains is 
 prepared to learn about Liverpool, Rome and the Alps. 
 The following year the advanced portion of the class 
 will be through with the subject; the others will work 
 with the new comers from the lower class and will take 
 the first half of the second book. 
 
 A New Variety of an Old Play. 
 
 PROF. H. A. ADRIAN, STATE NORMAL, RIVER FALLS, WIS. 
 
 The teacher over on Butternut evolved a new game 
 of “Fox and Geese” that proved more popular than the 
 old one had been. He had noticed bow eagerly both 
 boys and girls looked forward to the coming of the snow, 
 
IN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 83 
 
 which would enable them to begin their regular winter 
 sport. The first fall came just as his “A Class” in 
 geography were beginning the review of Wisconsin. 
 The winter before he had often “chased the geese” with 
 them in the adjoining pasture, and this morning as he 
 began to draw an outline map of the state on the board, 
 he looked out of the window on the broad white fields 
 and thought of the eager crowd that would soon be bois¬ 
 terously “laying out” the ring. He had promised to 
 “lead” in the preliminary survey, and he himself was 
 not without a good deal of pleasant anticipation of the 
 fun. 
 
 He had read that article about the Kansas teacher 
 who laid out her state and bnilt up its relief in a fallow 
 field near by, and as he gazed out of the window he 
 thought of a plan for review that looked more like play 
 than work. He did not feel sure, however, that the chil¬ 
 dren would accept it as either. 
 
 Most of the pupils were there by a quarter to nine 
 so that he had time enough to present his new plan in 
 general outline and talk it over with them a little, 
 though he did not suggest any connection between it and 
 their geography work; and when the “A Class” was 
 called, without any explanation he assigned a lesson on 
 Minnesota, 
 
 At recess the entire school climbed the old worm 
 fence into the pasture beyond and at a brisk trot they 
 
84 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 
 set out after the teacher in a northerly direction, making 
 a somewhat wavy line about 20 rods long, then south¬ 
 west for 4 rods, then to the north and northwest 22 rods, 
 then south and southeast 25 rods, then due east to the 
 starting point, making a fairly accurate outline of Wis¬ 
 consin, following as nearly as possible the “critical 
 boundary.” The second and third times around, the 
 teacher called out the boundary as he ran, and each pupil 
 called it out to the one behind him. During noon-time 
 they put in the Wisconsin river, making a straight port^ 
 age from its source to the northern boundary line, then 
 the Fox with its canal, the Rock with a portage line to 
 Lake Winnebago, and the Chippewa with a portage line 
 to Lake Superior. After this the main lines t)f the C. 
 & N. W., the C. M. & St. P., the Wis. Central, the Soo 
 and the Green Bay railroads were added. Next the 
 leading cities were located for goals, and everything was 
 ready for the first game. All were called together at 
 Madison, the home goal, and the rules explained. 
 
 Railway lines, rivers and the boundaries were to be 
 open runways. A runner would be “safe” on reaching 
 a town, provided he could name it and tell where located. 
 A goose, when caught, would have to be released if the 
 fox failed to name the railway or the river on which the 
 catch was made. These were the only conditions im¬ 
 posed at first, and soon the fun was fast and furious. 
 Of course, the smaller pupils kept near Madison, and so 
 did the geographical weaklings, but in a short time all 
 
IN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 85 
 
 were venturing further and further from home. They 
 were learning to travel by traveling, and taking the con¬ 
 sequence of mistakes. 
 
 Before the end of the week, all the towns of import¬ 
 ance were added, and new conditions were beginning to 
 be imposed. One day it would be to give the approx¬ 
 imate size of the goal towns as a condition of “safety.” 
 Another day the characteristic industry; then some 
 other matter of interest or information of sufficient im¬ 
 portance to be taught in geography work. 
 
 A little later placards were made, each one bearing 
 the name of some Wisconsin export or import. Each 
 goose took one, and with this fastened to his back he 
 must seek the place where it was produced, or the point 
 where it entered the state. There he was safe, but the 
 play was to get these products to the proper market by 
 the usual routes without being caught. When the first 
 map became badly disfigured, the state was outlined in 
 another place. Eacts of drainage, soils and climate 
 were then made conditions, at various times. Nothing 
 was allowed to come into the game that was not of suffi¬ 
 cient importance to be worth knowing, and at no time 
 was it correlated with work going on in the schoolroom. 
 The teacher discouraged any mention of it during work 
 hours, in the same way that he did with other matters 
 of play. He believed that work should be work and that 
 play should be play; and that at no time should they be 
 mixed. If the hours of work could in any way be made 
 
86 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 
 more pleasant, consistent with thorough mental dis¬ 
 cipline, he was ready to take advantage of it; and if the 
 materials of play could sometimes be useful facts, with¬ 
 out detracting from the “fun,” it seemed to him a good 
 thing. 
 
 I am not sure that he thought much about the latest 
 rules of child study, or whether his experiment was in 
 strict accord with advanced pedagogical thought, but his 
 pupils were very enthusiastic about their play, and as 
 deeply interested in their school work, and they seemed 
 to have more of the real, business man’s geography than 
 any corresponding grades I have ever had the pleasure 
 of examining. 
 
 Is This Geography? 
 
 We took our visiting day recently and spent a part 
 of it with a sixth grade teacher in one of the best schools 
 of Illinois. At the time of our visit the geography class 
 had been making a study of London. The work planned 
 for this school was in the form of a series of type studies. 
 The pupils were making a tour of the world, visiting 
 and studying the type forms. The first part of the reci¬ 
 tation that we heard consisted of a review of their trip 
 from Chicago to London. The preparation for the jour¬ 
 ney was described by the pupils in turn with great der 
 tail. The purchasing of a steamer trunk and its pack¬ 
 ing had been considered with thoughtful care. The 
 
IN GEOGKAPHY 
 
 87 
 
 route to New York was carefully outlined. Many places 
 were considered worthy of study and the local interest 
 of each was uncovered. The Ypsilanti, Michigan, Nor¬ 
 mal School received more than passing attention. Be¬ 
 tween the time of the arrival of their train in New York 
 and the sailing of their steamer, the pupils visited many 
 places of general interest, and many also which the ordi¬ 
 nary sight-seer could not find time for. The trip was 
 not made in a hurry. It was the aim to make the im¬ 
 pressions vivid and permanent ; hence the introduction 
 of much detail. 
 
 The class, with the aid of their Baedekers, had 
 studied London in detail, and were now taking side trips 
 to places of note near the city. The lesson of the pre¬ 
 vious day had been a trip to Windsor Castle. A plan 
 of the castle was now on the board, and from this the 
 entire advance recitation of the day was made. Much 
 attention was given to the changes made in the castle by 
 succeeding rulers. The rebuilding of the Bound Tower 
 by Edward III. was reported at length by one pupil. 
 The fact that the Tower was designated for a meeting 
 place for the Knights of the Garter brought out a de¬ 
 scription of that order. The class was asked to find out 
 all they could about the Knights of the Bound Table 
 before the next recitation. Many interesting facts in 
 connection with the various sovereigns were related, and 
 the manner and cause of their death noted. 
 
88 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY LESSONS 
 
 This recitation was interesting, the teacher was 
 bright and well-informed, the pupils were doing much 
 supplementary reading, hut—Is this Geography ? 
 
 [About nine-tenths of it is not only not geography, but it is 
 neither rational pedagogy nor valuable information. It proceeds 
 on the assumption that there is to be no hereafter to the child’s 
 school course, but that he must now “store his mind” with all the 
 possible sorts of information that he may have any use for in 
 after life. In geography, a pupil needs to be taught, first, what 
 a map is and how to use it; second, a few general facts of loca¬ 
 tion, commerce, climate, etc. The one who has thus been taught 
 can to-day take a map of South Africa and read intelligently 
 about the Transvaal and the war there. To have compelled boys 
 and girls a year ago to memorize minute details about that 
 country in anticipation of their possibly having use for them later 
 would have been no more unprofitable than most of the lessons 
 noted in the above article.—Ed. Teacher.] 
 
The Western Teacher 
 
 MILWAUKEE, WIS. 
 
 Is a Journal for the Schoolroom, 
 
 Filled with Usable Matter, 
 
 Presented in an Attractive Style. 
 
 Topics of practical value to actual teachers are presented 
 each month. 
 
 The contributed articles are from the most successful 
 educational writers. 
 
 It is not an “organ” of any association or administrative 
 department of any state; it is thoroughly independent and 
 outspoken; and it is not devoted to the promotion of any 
 “ism” or fad. 
 
 SUBSCRIPTION PRICE, $1.00 A YEAR. 
 
 If you have not seen it, send for Free Sample Copy. 
 
 The Western Teacher Song Book. 
 
 A collection of School Songs comprising the 
 best from the Badger Song Book and other 
 sources. Send five.two-cent stamps for a sample 
 copy. $1.00 a dozen. Published by 
 
 S. Yi GILLAN & CO. y 
 
 141 Wisconsin Street, 
 
 MILWAUKEE, WIS. 
 
THE TESTERN TEACHERS' 
 
 A Teachers’ Agency is a sort of educational clearing 
 house in which employers and those seeking employment are 
 brought together. No teacher’s personal acquaintance is 
 wide enough to afford a profitable field in which to offer his 
 service. The agency supplies such a field. 
 
 Every well conducted agency compiles a record of each 
 candidate on its list, for the use of employing officers who 
 apply to the agency for teachers. To have a record to refer 
 to thus compiled, is worth a great deal to a teacher. 
 
 THE WESTERN TEACHERS’ AGENCY 
 
 is conducted on strict professional and business principles, 
 has the confidence of superintendents and boards throughout 
 the Northwest, and solicits correspondence with successful 
 teachers who seek better positions. Send for circular to 
 
 S. Y. GILLAN & CO., 
 
 141 Wisconsin Street, MILWAUKEE, WIS. 
 
 REPORT CARDS. 
 
 The simplest and most practical monthly report card yet 
 devised is published by S. Y. \Grillan & Co., Milwaukee. The 
 record is easily kept by the teacher, and the card is a great 
 incentive to the pupil. Parents appreciate it highly. Price, 
 20 cents a dozen, one cent each in lots of 25 or more, or 60 
 cents a hundred. 
 
 One card lasts a pupil a year.