yS The Ottawa Naturalist. [June 



of things surrounding him, of which he perhaps makes daily use 

 or could do so, and from which he might be able to derive enjoy- 

 ment if he were able to understand, know or at least properly 

 observe them. So, there can be no difference of opinion as to 

 the usefulness and necessity of Nature Study. But, regarding 

 the ways and means of it, there is as yet no concurrence of opinion. 

 And it is the object of this paper to state some underlying principles 

 for Nature Study as the writer conceives it, whether it is carried 

 on professionally or in an amatuer-like manner, and whether much 

 or little time can be devoted to it. 



In the first place. Nature Study must not be looked upon and 

 taken up as a. fad. Ours is eminently an age of fads. Faddism is 

 carried into every branch of human activity. If one takes up 

 Nature Study, or any other study, as a fad, as a passing whim of 

 fashion, as an affectation of some people, he or she thereby de- 

 bases such study, debauches the mind and intellect, and squanders 

 time and money No, it must be looked upon as a study requiring 

 earnestness of purpose, all powers of mind and body while carried 

 on, devotion and application to it, also patience and resourceful- 

 ness. Whoever does not want to undertake Nature Study in this 

 way, had better not begin it at all, or at least not call his weak 

 dabbling with science and nature or his more or less purposeless 

 rambles, Nature Study. 



As is necessary in most undertakings of men, a student of 

 nature must not begin his work at random, in a purposeless and 

 ever-shifting way, but there must be method and system in his 

 work, be this much or little. To attempt to carry on Nature 

 Study without this would be as foolish as trying to build a house 

 without plan or fixed idea. As a few most necessary principles 

 underlying the system and method of the study of nature, I would 

 submit these, viz. : Liinitation, concentration, exactness, and after 

 all this, the making accessible to others of the results. 



So, first, there \s limitation , i. e. that a student of nature, pro- 

 fessional or otherwise, confines himself to certain limited areas of 

 investigation of objects offered us by nature. Life is too short, 

 even for one who can give all his time to this, to take up all the 

 fascinating problems that ask for solution in the realm of nature. 

 So, if a lover of this study would plunge himself into it headlong 



