THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



189 



burdens that they have had to bear ' 

 ' from the shoulders of hundreds of 

 hard-working and ill-compensated men ' 

 is more problematical. These hard- 

 working and ill-compensated professors 

 are not so badly off after all, and if 

 their salaries have not increased in 

 proportion to the greater cost and 

 higher standards of living, they should 

 themselves see to it that justice is 

 done. Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Cor- 

 nell and other universities already had 

 pension systems as a matter of con- 

 tract with their professors, and if it is 

 intended that Mr. Carnegie's founda- 

 tion shall be of benefit to the pro- 

 fessors, their salaries should be in- 

 creased by the amount of income set 

 free. It is quite possible that pro- 

 fessors will in the end be paid just 

 so much the less, because pensions have 

 been assured to them. The individual 

 professor would probably have gained 

 more and certain institutions would 

 have gained less if the trustees had 

 been professors instead of presidents. 



President Pritchett says in his re- 

 port : " It is evident to the trustees 

 that, to better the profession of the 

 teacher and to attract into it increas- 

 ing numbers of strong men, it is neces- 

 sary that the retiring allowance should 

 come as a matter of right, not as a 

 charity. No ambitious and inde- 

 pendent professor wishes to find him- 

 self in the position of accepting a 

 charity or a favor, and the retiring 

 allowance system simply as a charity 

 has little to commend it." But un- 

 fortunately the pensions of widows and 

 for disablement are at present on a 

 charity basis. They should either be 

 abandoned, or made so that they will 

 accrue as a matter of contract. In 



the German universities a professor re- 

 ceives his salary for life. He may 

 cease lecturing if disabled by illness 

 or old age, but he may continue to 

 lecture as long as he sees fit to such 

 students as care to hear him. In case 

 of death a pension is provided for his 

 widow and for each child. This is 

 more satisfactory than the system pro- 

 posed by the Carnegie Foundation. 

 However, it might not be possible to 

 adjust it to the American college. 

 Certainly all professors and all scien- 

 tific men should be sincerely grateful 

 to Mr. Carnegie. But it is a mis- 

 fortune that he did not make pro- 

 fessors trustees of the Carnegie Foun- 

 dation and scientific men trustees of 

 the Carnegie Institution. 



THE SAND-DUNES OF THE 

 DESERT OF ISLAY 



I It is a familiar fact that sand-dunes 

 are carried along by the winds. Much 

 labor and expense have been incurred 

 in many localities, especially near the 



! sea, to prevent the damage which their 

 movement inflicts on the neighboring 

 country. These sand-hills are found in 

 great numbers in nearly all the desert 

 regions of the earth, and their forms 

 and motions have been described by 

 different writers. A recent volume of 

 the Annals of the Harvard Observa- 

 tory contains a somewhat elaborate 

 discussion of the crescent-shaped sand- 

 dunes of tbe Desert of Islay in Peru, 

 by Professor S. I. Bailey, who observed 

 tli em during eight years. 



The coast region of Peru is desert 

 throughout its whole extent. In some 

 places it is made up of barren hills, 

 in others, of arid plains. The Pampa, 

 or Desert of Islay, is bounded by the 



