6l2 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



when difficulties arise, either of technique or interpretation, the 

 instructor is at hand to smooth away the trouble. 



For those who have passed this preliminary training, and who 

 are ready to carry on investigation, twenty-four private rooms 

 on the second floor are set aside. Here, in privacy and in quiet, 

 undisturbed by others, each can solve his problems. In each 

 room is an aquarium to keep the animals or plants, while the 

 table and shelves are supplied with the necessary books, reagents, 

 and glassware. All who have carried on investigations after the 

 modern methods of zoology and botany realize that rapidity is 

 incompatible with good work. A thorough piece of investigation 

 can not be completed in a few weeks ; and yet over thirty papers 

 have been published, or are now in press, as the results of the in- 



Fig. 3. A Bit of the Students' Laboratory, Woods Holl, Mass. 



vestigations carried on in those private rooms. No laboratory 

 connected with any college or university in the country can show 

 equal productiveness. 



In both upper and lower laboratories, among both beginners 

 and investigators, some are working at zoological, others at bo- 

 tanical subjects ; while this year, for the first time, physiology 

 is to be included in the work done. Material for study is abun- 

 dant. Besides row-boats, which are available for shore collecting, 

 the laboratory has a sail-boat and also a Burgess-built steam- 

 launch, the Sagitta, which has proved itself the fastest boat in the 

 region. This is daily in use. Now it goes out on a dredging trip 

 in the sound ; yesterday it made a trip to Cuttyhunk or Gay Head 

 for lobsters ; this morning it made the round of the fish-pounds 



