DAVIS, WILLIAM MORRIS American geographer and geologist, was born in Philadelphia, Pa., on Feb. 12, 185o. After graduating from the Lawrence scientific school, Harvard university in 1870, he was assistant astronomer at the Argentine National observatory, Cordoba, Argentina, in In 1877 he made a tour of the world. He was instructor and professor of physical geography and geology at Harvard from 1877 until 1912 when he was made professor emeritus. In 1903 he went to Turkistan as a physiographer of Pumpelly's Carnegie institution expedition. He visited South Africa in 1905 and Aus tralia in 1914 as guest of the British Association for the Advance ment of Science. He was visiting professor at the University of Berlin in 1908-09, and at the University of Paris in 1911-12. In 1914 he crossed the Pacific on a Shaler memorial study of coral reefs. He was founder and for three terms president of the Asso ciation of American Geographers; founder and president (1902 11) of the Harvard Travellers' club, and president (I 91 I) of the Geological Society of America. By his lectures and writings on the development of the physical features of the earth he won high rank among modern physiographers.