$76.]

Examinations.

225

§ 76. Oral Examinations.

The old-fashioned oral examinations have fallen into disuse, with the school committees solemnly ranged on the platform, and anxious children awaiting their turn. It always gave an undue advantage to the ready, off-hand pupil, and often caught pupils on some unimportant or small part of the subject. The advantage of keeping the wits sharpened, and being ready to use one's knowledge, can be gained by skillful recitations, and especially by the device known as "cards" (§ 45).

For small classes, and especially for advanced students, where there is time to go into detail, the oral examination has important uses; and it is accepted as a proper test (in part, at least) for the degree of Ph.D. The power to marshal a large body of knowledge, and to select the portion which is pertinent to an inquiry, is best tested in this way.

PART II.

TOPICS AND REFERENCES IN COLONIAL HISTORY.

IX. DISCOVERY AND LATIN COLONIZATION.

§ 77. Physiography of North America.

Summary. The physical conformation of North America: Characteristics of the Atlantic Slope, of the Great Valleys, of the Pacific Slope; soils, mineral deposits, climate, rainfall; comparison with European lands. Products: tobacco, Indian corn, cotton, potatoes, wheat, indigo, rice, lumber and naval stores, coal, iron, precious metals, cattle, sheep, hides and furs, etc. Effects of this environment on men of European origin.

General.-N. S. Shaler in Winsor, America, IV, pp. i-xxx, especially pp. xx-xxx; B. A. Hinsdale, Old Northwest, 1-5; J. A. Doyle, English in America, Virginia, 5-8.

Special.-N. S. Shaler, Nature and Man in America; J. D. Whitney, in Encyclopædia Britannica, ninth edition, article on the United States; J. D. Whitney, The United States; N. S. Shaler, editor, The United States; Ratzel, Vereinigten Staaten; Elisée Reclus, The Earth and its Inhabitants, North America, Vol. III; Jedidiah Morse, The American Universal Geography, Vol. I; B. A. Gould, Investigations in the Military and Anthropological Statistics of American Soldiers.

Sources and Bibliography. — See § 21 a.

§ 78. Geography of North America, 1492-1775.

Summary. Physiography (see § 77). Claims of European Powers (see §§ 82, 86, 87, 89–93, 131, 132, 141). Partitions in 1493 (see § 82), in 1632 (see § 89). · Exclusion of the Dutch and

the Swedes (see §§ 104, 105). - Disputes with the Spaniards.— Exclusion of the French (see §§ 131, 132). Unoccupied territory.

Subdivisions of the English possessions, and intercolonial boundary controversies (see §§ 97, 100, 102, 103, 105-107, 113, 114, 116, 120, 121, 123, 130, 133). — Partition of 1763 (§§ 91, 132, 133). Partition in 1783 (§ 141). — 1776–83, Claims of the states, and cessions (§ 142).

General.

-The standard histories, passim, e.g., Hildreth, United States, I, II; G. Bancroft, United States (last revision); Gay, Bryant's Popular History; Doyle, English in America.

Special. Winsor, in his America, Columbus, Cartier, Mississippi Basin (all these works are rich in cartography; they are analyzed in the sections noted above); Hinsdale, Old Northwest, Chs. ii-viii; Joseph Blunt, Historical Sketch of the Confederacy, Chs. i, ii; J. Fiske, Discovery of America; C. P. Lucas, Historical Geography of the British Colonies, Introduction; B. A. Hinsdale, The Right by Discovery, in Ohio Historical and Archæological Society, Quarterly, II.

MAPS: Epochs of American History, The Colonies, Nos. 1–4, Formation of the Union, Nos. 2, 3, the same maps are in Epoch Maps, Nos. 1-6; H. E. Scudder, History, p. 131; A. Johnston, School History, p. 67 ; G. P. Fisher, Colonial Era; MacCoun's Historical Geography of the United States; W. M. Sloane, French War and Revolution; H. C. Lodge, English Colonies; E. Channing, The United States, 1765–1865.

Sources. - The collections of treaties, statutes, decisions, etc., are

noted in §§ 21 d, 29, 30. Some of the more important documents may

be found as follows:

TREATIES: St. Germain, 1632: Recueil des Traités de Paix (Amsterdam, 1700), III, 328. — Ryswick, 1697: Memorials of the English and French Commissaries concerning the Limits of Nova Scotia, or Acadia; Dumont, Corps Diplomatique, VII, 399; Chalmers, Collection of Treaties between Great Britain and Other Powers. Extracts, containing the portions relating to America, are in Houston, Constitutional Documents, 265; Mills, Boundaries of Ontario (revised edition), 143.— Utrecht, 1713: Dumont, Corps Diplomatique, VIII, 339; Chalmers, Collection of Treaties, I, 378. Extracts in Houston, Constitutional Documents, 3; Mills, Boundaries of Ontario (revised edition), 158. — Aix-la-Chapelle, 1748: Chalmers, Collection of Treaties. Extracts in Houston, Documents, 265.— Peace of Paris, 1763: Martens et Cussy, Recueil de Traités, I, 30. The portions

$78.] Geography of North America, 1492-1775.

229

relating to boundaries are in American History Leaflets, No. 5; Houston, Constitutional Documents, 61. — Royal Proclamation of 1763: The Annual Register for 1763, 208-213; Mills, Boundaries of Ontario, 192; Houston, Documents, 67; American History Leaflets, No. 5. — Quebec Act, 1774: Statutes at Large of Great Britain (London, 1776); Wm. Kingsford, History of Canada, V, 256; Houston, Constitutional Documents, 90. Treaty of Peace, 1782-83: Treaties and Conventions between the United States and Other Powers. Appended to the "Preliminary Articles" in this publication will be found the "Separate Article as to Florida. For the commissions of the Governors of West Florida, see Duane's Laws of the United States, I, 450; they are reprinted in American History Leaflets, No. 5.

THE CHARTERS: B. P. Poore, Charters and Constitutions; H. W, Preston, Documents illustrative of American History; Samuel Lucas. Charters of the Old English Colonies in America, London 1850; Old South Leaflets. Most of the important portions of the charters, from a geographical point of view, are in American History Leaflets, No. 15. The Maryland charter, in the Latin original, is in Poore's Charters. English translations are in Bacon, Laws of Maryland, and in Scharf, History of Maryland.

MAPS FACSIMILES. Besides the facsimiles given by Winsor in his America, Mississippi Basin, and other works, and those contained in the collections of facsimiles and sketches noted below, there are several photographic reproductions of important maps on the scale of the original. There are also numerous facsimiles illustrative of particular points scattered through the descriptive works. Some of the more important of the collections are mentioned in the following list; they relate for the most part to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. For reproductions of later maps Winsor's Mississippi Basin is the principal storehouse. The titles of single maps and important collections illustrating particular points will be found in the later sections of this Guide, especially §§ 81-84, 87, 89, 90, 92, 131, etc.

Theobald Fischer, editor, Raccolta di Mappamondi e Carte nautiche del XIII al XVI secolo, Venice, F. Ongania, 1886, and accompanying text; E. F. Jomard, Les Monuments de la Géographie, Paris, 1866; J. G. Kohl, Discovery of Maine (Documentary History of Maine, I); K. Kretschmer, Die Entdeckung Amerikas, Berlin, 1892, and Atlas; F. Kunstmann, Entdeckung Amerikas, Munich, 1859, and Atlas; J. Lelewel, Géographie du Moyen Age, Bruxelles, 1852, and Atlas; G. Marcel, Reproductions de Cartes et de Globes, XVI-XVIII centuries, Atlas and text, Paris, 1893; [Frederick Muller & Co.], Remarkable Maps of the XV