228 The Ottawa Naturalist. [February 



In the three years following 1887 I made six cameras of varying 

 efficiency. Then 1 bought a No. 5 folding Kodak for films but 

 soon gave up films and took to plates again. At presen 

 I use a 4 x 5 Premo. B., for plates, which serves my very 

 ordinary attainments and requirements in this line very well. 

 One contracts the habit of having a camera at hand, especially 

 on the water or in camp, and does not feel fully equipped with- 

 out it. It adds not a little to the pleasure of living to have these 

 pictorial records, to say nothing of their value in substantiating 

 our stories of what we catch and shoot. 



Regarding scientific hobbies I shall be brief. 



Previous to that time when governments recognized the true 

 value of purely scientific work, nearly all investigation was carried 

 on along the lines of the hobby. 



Astronomy, microscopy, scientific farming, histology and 

 many other lines of investigation were developed in the spare time 

 of earnest men who either could afford the leisure or earned their 

 bread by other means. It was long before the world learned that 

 purely scientific research had any commercial value. 



Even now, amongst the ignorant can be heard sneers at the 

 men of theory and not a few farmers laugh at scientific farming 

 as a scythe might have one day laughed at a reaping machine. 



To-day, however, things of this nature are getting on to a dif- 

 ferent plane we have government astronomers, government his- 

 tologists, geologists, botanists, entomologists, horticulturists, a 

 fish commissioner and a host of others. In our Geological Survey 

 and our Experimental Farms we have the spirit of the hobby 

 made flesh ; and not only do we derive certain theoretical benefits 

 from the same, but the advantages can be measured in those big 

 round dollars which to so many people represent the standard of 

 utility. 



Were it possible to unscrew the skull cap of any of these men 

 in the Geological Survey or on the Experimental Farms there 

 would be found a live healthy hobby, a hobby in the real sense of 

 work for work's sake : an altruistic hobby, for they work early 

 and late, and their contributions to the welfare of the nation aft 

 large, out of all proportion to the reward which they receive for 

 their services. /^$CA?\ 



