98 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 





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AQASSIZ ASSOCIATION 



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Established 1875 



IncorpDrntHil. MnMM,icliiisHttH. IMfj 



Connecticut, 1910 



Our Meriden, Connecticut, Chapter. 



The annual reports from this Chapter 

 come to us in excellent shape, not in 

 glittering generalities, but in a specific 

 account from each member as to what 

 was actually studied. For example, we 

 cjuote a little from a few of these ex- 

 tended, individual reports. 



Mildred Whiting tells how she went 

 into the woods searching for cocoons 

 and finally found one on a white birch 

 tree. "This cocoon was made out of 

 leaves and fastened to the twig of the 

 tree. I cut the twig and procured the 

 cocoon. Then I took a box, cut out 

 the top of the cover, inserted some net- 

 ting, put the cocoon in the box, and put 

 this cover on. I also gathered about 

 six of these common brown caterpillars 

 and put them in the same kind of a 

 box as I did the cocoon. I fed them 

 grass and leaves, mostly rose leaves. 

 Within three days, they had all spun 

 a cocoon for themselves. They all 

 seemed to prefer the corner of the box, 

 so that there were two or three in one 

 corner." 



Caroline J. Hitchcock: "The subject 

 I chose for my work last year was 

 plants. During a visit to the British 

 Isles I collected and pressed speci- 

 mens. This fall I mounted these and 

 I now have to give to the society about 

 fifty specimens and of these eleven are 

 ferns. The ferns have their botanical 

 name with them but the others have 

 not." 



Eva Rettenmeyer tells how she be- 

 came interested in astronomy and con- 

 tinued that study: "As far back as 1 

 can remember I have felt a friendly 

 interest in the stars. Although there 

 were brighter and more attractive 

 groups in the heavens, the seven stars 

 of the Big Dipper received most of my 

 attention. The reason was simple 

 enough — I knew the group by name. 

 Because of this I made a firm resolu- 



tion to learn the names of as many 

 stars as possible. But how? Occasion- 

 ally one had been pointed out to me, 

 but when I looked for it again, it was 

 lost among the many. 



"W^ith a great deal of doubt in my 

 mind, I turned to books for help. At 

 first I found them, as I had expected, 

 too technical, until at length one ap- 

 peared which professed itself a guide 

 for the amateur. This I read and re- 

 read during the day and then impa- 

 tiently awaited night and my old 

 friend, Ursa Major. 



"With the aid of the 'Pointers' I 

 found the Pole Star and the other stars 

 making Ursa Minor. By tracing im- 

 aginary lines from these two constella- 

 tions I located Cassiopeia and then 

 Capella and Vega and, soon after, the 

 most beautiful star of all, Arcturus. 

 And so I continued the study, each 

 night finding some further from the 

 North Pole until I could recognize 

 most of the southern constellations. 



"By this time, newer constellations 

 began to appear in the east. It was 

 ever so interesting to watch the stars 

 rise, one by one, first late at night and 

 then earlier and earlier until they were 

 visible soon after sunset. 



"Meanwhile some of my first star 

 acquaintances left the evening skies. 

 Now thev are returning and others are 

 setting. It is a continual going and com- 

 ing which keeps our interest balanced 

 between the east and west. 



"As I have shown, my first step in 

 astronomy was to learn the names of 

 the brightest stars and of the constel- 

 lations to which they belonged. This 

 I could not do without noticing and 

 reading about various phenomena. I 

 noticed the dififerent degrees of bright- 

 ness and this led to the reading of para- 

 graphs on magnitudes, size, and dis- 

 tance. I marked the differences in 



