i62 The Ottawa Naturalist. [November 



But Nature Study does not stop at car ful observation and 

 the formation of distinct and true mental pictures. It leads to a 

 knowledge not only of the structure but of the functions of living 

 thing's. It continually puts the questions, why ? and wherefore ? 

 and thus educates or draws out that valuable art of deduction, 

 without which our observations would be of little service — without 

 which half the value of Nature Study would be lost. Of this fea- 

 ture, however, it is not our present intention to speak further, 

 but rather to bring to the notice of the earnest and enthusiastic 

 student the camera as an aid and adjunct to careful, accurate ob- 

 servation. The making of a photograph — and by the making I 

 include the taking, the dark room work and the printing — serves 

 to impress the image of what we have seen upon the mind and 

 memory as nothing but making a drawing can — emphatically and 

 accurately. The mere focussing on the ground glass of the tree, 

 a clump of fern, the bird on her nest, serves to imprint the image 

 on the memory more accurately, vividly and permanently than 

 does the casual glance at the objects themselves. How much 

 deeper and more lasting is the image after the finished print is 

 made ! The writer found in his college days that it well repa'd to 

 write out his lecture notes, even though the manuscript might 

 never be reviewed — and in later days he finds the same principle 

 still holds good with Naturfe Study and the camera. 



All this, valuable as it is, however, does not comprise all the 

 benefits to be derived from the aid of the camera. Though Nature 

 Study is, as we have said, primarily for the out-of-doors, it fre- 

 quently calls for subsequent work indoors to a more complete 

 understanding of the objects of our study. In the photograph, 

 carefully made, we have a record for this purpose. We cannot 

 bring home with us the clump of towering trees, but in the image 

 so accurately made by light we can again and again consider and 

 compare their mode of growth, their contour and many other 

 features. The same truth is still more obvious in geological 

 studies. The rock cuttings showing the various strata, the 

 escarpments and boulders can only be brought home for future 

 study by the camera. And what shall we say of the fugitive 

 clouds that, unconsciously to most of us, make the beauty of the 

 landscape ? We must secure the image ere the substance goes, 



