DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 213 



recommend but to call them the masterpieces of the world's literature in 

 nature-studv, to put them among the "best ten, "is deplorable. It is worse. It 

 is an outrage on the reader's intelligence. It is all right to collect straws, if 

 the straws are good and are needed, but to call straws the best things in life 

 is misleading, and a misdirecting and wasting of well-intentioned efforts. 



In the spirit of such modernism, I rise to inquire in the famous phrase of 

 the perplexed and embarrassed congressman, "Where are we at ?" 



I recall that years ago, in one of my rambles, I saw a barn and on one 

 side of the building a target at which "the boys" had been shooting. As I 

 desired to see how near they had come to the center, I made an examination. 

 I found that the region in the immediate vicinitv of the target was well 

 peppered, and at one or two points, pretty well shattered ; but the target 

 itself had not suffered any great injury. And as I examined the strav and 

 scatteiing shots, I was impressed by two unexplainable facts. First, why 

 some were so near to the eaves, and second, why with so many shooters so 

 much of the barn had escaped. 



I have a similar sensation when I examine those lists of nature-study books. 

 What a peppering and scattering of shots was given to Bailey, Hodge, Corn- 

 stock, Chapman and Blanchan. School-gardens, a recent suggestion in 

 nature-study, came in for fair "marks." But how near the eaves were 

 some of the shots and how far afield. Why you could find an occasional 

 bullet sticking in the trees of the next farm, good bullets, too, and effective 

 hits, if only the trees had been the target. Such marksmanship makes one 

 excited. If the game is to be played all over the barn and the surrounding 

 landscape let's "pepper" things some more. 



In view of the prominence and efficiencv of aquaria in nature-studv, whv 

 has no one said a word about Bateman's "The Book of Aquaria?" Tad- 

 poles must be going out of date ! 



Then isn't it astonishing that the omnipresent characters of nature— the 

 sky and the weather — were totally ignored ? And not the slightest reference 

 to the use of the microscope, camera, opera-glass or telescope. When 

 bullets were flying wild 1 wonder why some of these things didn't get hit by 

 accident. Surely the books in the appended list are better entitled to mention 

 than some that were lauded : 



"The Sea-beach at Ebb-tide" — Arnold. "Sea-shore Life" — Mayer. 

 "The Common Spiders of the United States" — Emerton. "Tenants of an 

 Old Farm" — McCook. "The Teaching Botanist" — Ganong. 



Though many technical scientific works are mentioned, evervbodv seems 

 to have overlooked a little man by the name of Darwin who wrote a little 

 book called "The Origin of Species." 



