194 The Ottawa Naturalist. [January 



structive feature of the work at the Institute. Here for the first 

 time were the students placed face to face with Nature. To the 

 keen observer how much do the field and wood reveal on an 

 autumn day ? How seriously is he handicapped whose knowledge, 

 broug-ht to the interpretation of Nature, has been limited to the 

 casual observances of a few leisure hours ! The distant gleam of 

 white on the alder bough, the flitting glimpse of a grey wing in 

 the bush, the patch of green on the old beech trunk pass unheeded 

 by under the eye of the nature amateur. But when under the 

 direction of a skilful naturalist, the white upon the alder has been 

 examined and reveals itself as a mass of fuzzy living aphids ; 

 when the peculiar squeaky bird-call has been sounded and the 

 grey wing resolves into a nervous, shy, little ruby-crowned kinglet; 

 when the patch of grey on the beech has revealed one of the many 

 lichens, and one's laboratory practice tells him that this little mass 

 of grey represents a life far down in the scale, of plant develop- 

 ment, then the fields and woods take on an added interest, and the 

 simple and obscure claim equal rank with the gaudy and the 

 beautiful. 



The best methods of correlating the new Nature work with 

 the old subjects on the curriculum was a matter demanding par- 

 ticular attention. For an illustration of recent earth history it was 

 shown that no better spot could be selected than a gravel pit. 

 Here the pupils may examine the shape and nature of the gravel- 

 stones, the resemblences or differences between these stones and 

 the bed rock, the arrangement of the layers of gravel, the dip of 

 these layers, etc., showing the action of water. Subsequent 

 lessons may include observations of the surrounding country, 

 evidence of the action of ice or water, changes in the beds of lakes 

 and rivers, etc., from which the pupils may deduce much of the 

 past history of the locality. In history, a beginning may be made 

 in the life of the district, its trustees, its forms of government, the 

 township council, leading men and women of the township, stories 

 of early settlement, etc. In literature certainly, a knowledge of 

 nature is necessary for an understanding of the passages to be 

 studied. Let the pupils go out to the meadows and observe the 

 bobolink there before taking up such a selection as Bryant's 

 " Robert of Lincoln." Only in this way can they appreciate the 



