The varying velocity of the river should be drawn from the children from the nature and position of the contour lines, and from that, which parts of its course are being sculptured and in which parts deposition is taking place.
Lesson VI. If a physical course is given, the work of rivers will already have been treated, but certain rivers in the continent should be chosen for special description. From the contour line the children will be able to say for how great a distance the rivers are probably navigable, and the uses of the given rivers as a means of communication and the position of towns on their banks may be discussed.
Coast line.Lesson VII. Coast line. Sufficient knowledge will now have been gained to render possible the appreciation of some of the causes affecting coast line.
When rocks are hard and folded, producing mountains, then they will also give rise to rocky promontories. Clays and sands, which inland allow themselves to be worn into plains and valleys, will here produce bays. Rivers, if still capable of erosion, will produce valleys, which a slight subsidence will convert into narrow gulfs. Finally the accessibility of various points on the coast may be considered, and the position of the chief harbours and ports.
Climate.Lesson VIII. Climate. This lesson may be treated deductively, as the class is already familiar with those phenomena upon which both temperature and rainfall are mainly dependent. The rainfall might be given as an exercise, allowing the use of contoured maps, and the chart of the prevailing winds.
Lesson IX. Distribution of vegetation, pastoral and agricultural districts.
Lesson X. Distribution of minerals, centres of population.
At the end of this course a physical map of some country not already studied by the children should be hung before them, and they should all be asked to write an essay about the country from the facts that they find in the map.
If they can do this, they will have learnt to read a map intelligently, and one of the great ends of a course in geography will have been attained, since they will not only have acquired many new facts, but have also gained the power of searching for and assimilating facts for themselves.
When England is the country being studied, this course must be supplemented by more detailed work on the causes that have determined the positions of cities and towns, and how these causes have operated during the last 2000 years. The children should be shown that British camps were generally on escarpments overlooking the surrounding country. The district round was cultivated, and the inhabitants sought safety in the camp in time of danger. After having been told that the position of some of these “duns” or hill forts is still indicated by such place-names as London, Dunstable and Dundee, the children might be encouraged to suggest other places themselves. The number of camps was greatly increased by the Romans, many of the sites being marked by corruptions of the Latin word castra, as Chester, Colchester and Winchester, and these camps were joined by well-made roads.