THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION 



99 



•colour and the different tone of the 

 .same star when rising or setting. Of 

 these, also, the book held explanations. 

 J. saw double stars and read about 

 them, and in one glorious moment, 

 through a telescope, I saw the trapezium 

 -of Orion. In that same moment I real- 

 ized, from the quickness with which 

 ■the telescope got out of lield, how 

 rapidly the earth is revolving. The dif- 

 ferent positions of Ursa Major had pre- 

 -^■iously proved it to me. 



"These are but a few of the interest- 

 ing points in the study of astronomy. 

 Jt contains everything from the most 

 -poetic traditions to the greatest of scien- 

 tific investigations. 



"So far I have tried to gain a little 

 general knowledge of astronomy in dif- 

 ferent phases Perhaps in another 

 :season I shall be content to concentrate 

 upon the study of some particular 

 phase of it ; at least, I hope to." 



Adelaide Piechocki gives a list of 

 minerals that she has studied, also con- 

 tinuing an interest in moths and but- 

 terflies. The list of minerals contains 

 many of especial interest with descrip- 

 tion of what has been learned. 



Gertrude Henrietta Rudolph has 

 studied and mounted eighteen kinds 

 of plants and found the work delight- 

 ful. She is continuing it this summer. 

 She also reports having given consid- 

 erable time to birds and insects on her 

 Avalks searching for plants. 



E. Norma Doolittle has studied trees 

 and astronomy. She says that she 

 secured a planisphere and some books 

 and in a short time was able to recog- 

 nize principal stars as well as constel- 

 lations. During her study she was 

 fortunate in having a view through a 

 large telescope. She saw Saturn, the 

 stars of the Pleiades, and has become 

 much interested in Mercury. 



Ellena Risley McLean says she ar- 

 ranged a collection of thirty-five differ- 

 ent tree seeds in uniform bottles and 

 labeled. "I have five blocks of wood 

 cut to show the grain. The evergreens 

 look well in the Rikers' mounts and I 

 have branches of the white pine, arbor 

 v'itae, and Norway spruce, with cones 

 from each, thus arranged. I also have 

 a photograph of each tree which I shall 

 fasten in an envelope to the back of the 

 mount." 



Louis C. Dossin collected the cocoons 

 of moths in the winter and gives c^uite 

 a long list telling various experiences 

 with each particular kind. In the spring 

 he caught moths under the electric 

 lights but found that the most perfect 

 imagoes were those that came out of 

 cocoons collected during the winter 

 months. 



AW G. Shute gave extended attention 

 to geology and writes interestingly as 

 follows : "A few years ago Professors 

 Rice and Gregory explained the geolo- 

 gical changes to wdiich Connecticut 

 and therefore Meriden were subjected. 

 During the past summer I attempted 

 to cover Aleriden and the vicinity in 

 order to explain the nature of our hills 

 and mountains in the light of the work 

 prepared by the gentlemen mentioned. 



"I visited first Roaring Brook in 

 Southington wdiere I took a picture of 

 the Paleozoic schists at right angles to 

 the overhanging sandstones. I later 

 found outcrops of gneiss east of ]\Iid- 

 dletown thereby easily proving that 

 Meriden was formerly under water, 

 with high mountains on either side. 

 The four separate strata of sandstone 

 were easily followed wnth their inter- 

 vening lava sheets, namely the ante- 

 rior, main and the posterior. The last 

 was not found in ^leriden. The first 

 was interesting for it bore the marks of 

 a lava deposit into water. One fright- 

 ful explosion of steam and stone was 

 found in the 'crater' near Berlin. Fur- 

 thermore, the sandstones by their de- 

 cidedly red color denote that they were 

 deposited in fresh water. This shows 

 that Meriden was at least twice under 

 water. The age of the strata is easily 

 determined by the many imprints of 

 the dinosaur, a semibipedal reptile, 

 which lived during the Triassic or 

 early Jurassic era. 



"The last changes were explained by 

 the ice sheet's sweep across the state. I 

 took many photographs illustrating the 

 different formations caused by the gla- 

 ciers and attempted to explain the 

 nature of all our hills. The whole 

 attempt of my work was to picture as 

 clearly as possible the different stages 

 through which ^Meriden had passed." 



Anna Koffinke tells of "x\moebae I 

 Have A\^atched" as follows : "Aly mind 

 was strangely divided in my choice of 

 a special subject between astronomy, 



