150 The Ottawa Naturalist. [Nov. 



ornithology. Just as in literature we may appreciate the beauty, 

 the sentiment, and the feeling without entering into a detailed 

 analysis of it, so in nature study we may learn to love a flower, 

 a bird, or an insect without having any technical knowledge 

 concerning anv of them. Of course in taking up the work a 

 vast fund of knowledge is sure to be acquired by the pupil and 

 this knowledge will form, later on, an excellent scientific founda- 

 tion. 



There is no doubt, however, that the complexity of material 

 is a stumbling block, hence the necessity for some outline of 

 work for the various grades. There must be a great deal of 

 elasticity in the course laid down and there need be no special 

 order for taking up the work, except what may be incidentally 

 suggested, as the teaching of a lesson in literature, a topic in 

 geography or any other individual occurrence. It is well too, 

 in graded schools that, while each teacher is given great latitude, 

 some definite course be followed in each grade. Otherwise 

 much confusion and useless repetition are sure to follow. The 

 work for each grade, as outlined in the school regulations, is 

 merely suggestive and may be supplemented to meet any local 

 conditions. The course to be followed should deal with plant 

 and animal life, the earth itself, the sky, the atmosphere, in fact 

 evervthing around us. I understand some such course is being 

 outlined for the various grades in your schools; it is, therefore, 

 unnecessary that I say more on this phase of the subject. 



I do strongly advocate, however, that, during the long 

 winter seasons when out-door work in nature is practically 

 impossible, or at least very difficult, more attention be given, 

 especially in the Third and Fourth Forms, to elementary science. 

 I am fully aware that it has been, and is to-day, customary to 

 introdvice this phase of school work in the High or Secondary 

 School. This I consider a mistake. There is much in elementary 

 physics and even in chemistry that the average child, who will 

 never go beyond the primary school, might take up with great 

 profit. In fact the course outlined in the regulations covers 

 some of this work. I see no valid reason why those Forms 

 should not have simple experiments to show them the chief 

 properties of air — such, e.g. as its composition, weight, pressure, 

 the structure and uses of a barometer; simple experiments on 

 water, e.g. hard and soft, chief impurities, filtration, evaporation, 

 condensation and buoyancy ; on heat, such as sources, expansion 

 by heat, conduction, convection, radiation and the structure 

 and uses of thermometers; simple lessons on the cause and 

 transmission of sound, light, etc. There is, in all this work, 

 much valuable information which will enable pupils to better 



