CORRESP ONDENCE. 



12 3 



CORRESPONDENCE 



THE ABANDONMENT OF PENIKESE. 

 Editor Popular Science Monthly: 



e~\\R; On my return after a protracted ab- 

 5 sence, my attention was called to an 

 article by President D. S. Jordan on Peni- 

 kese in the April number of The Popular 

 Science Monthly. Mr. Jordan is mistaken * 

 as to the causes which brought about the 

 close of the Anderson School at Penikese. 

 If he had taken the trouble to look up the 

 history of the relations of the second director 

 of the school with Mr. Anderson's represent- 

 atives, he would have found a very simple 

 solution of the matter. 



The fund given to Prof. Agassiz by Mr. 

 Anderson was spent in the equipment of the 

 school and in paying for its running expenses 

 during the first year. At the end of the first 

 year it became apparent to all concerned that 

 Penikese was not a locality suited for a marine 

 laboratory. This had been anticipated by some 

 of Prof. Agassiz's friends, who urged him not 

 to accept the gift of the island of Penikese 

 as a permanent home for a summer school. 



The second year was carried on by the 

 trustees in the hope of obtaining from Mr. 

 Anderson the permission to remove the school 

 to Wood's Hole, and with the further under- 

 standing with Mr. Anderson's representative 

 that Mr. Anderson would be responsible for 

 the expenses of the school during its sec- 

 ond term. Neither of these expectations 

 were realized, and one of the trustees was 

 compelled to meet the expenditures, which 

 amounted to a large sum, and are still a 

 charge upon the school. The attendance 

 during the second year was larger than dur- 

 ing the first year, and the applications for 

 the third year were beyond the capacity of 

 the school to meet. The second director did 

 not feel inclined to carry on the school at a 

 locality which he had condemned as unfit for 

 the work, and which was handicapped by its 

 isolated position, involving, in addition to the 

 expenses of a favorable locality, extraordi-' 

 nary expenditures in the way of transporta- 

 tion amounting to more than the ordinary 

 expenses of the school. Nor did the second 

 director feel called upon to meet this waste- 

 ful expenditure for the sake of carrying on 

 an enterprise which ought not to have been 

 located where it was, and could not be car- 

 ried on successfully as long as it remained in 

 its original site. 



Having thus failed to obtain Mr. Ander- 

 son's consent to the removal of the buildings 

 to Wood's Hole, and finding, in response to an 



* The yacht given to the school was presented 

 by Mr. C. W. Galloupe, and not by Mr. Anderson, 

 as is stated in the article quoted above. Mr. Gal- 

 loupe generously allowed its sale, to meet a part ot 

 the debts of the school. 



appeal from the trustees, that no educational 

 institution in the country cared sufficiently 

 for the scheme to co-operate with them, 

 the trustees represented the case to the 

 Legislature of Massachusetts, and were au- 

 thorized to convey all right and title to the 

 island, and to the buildings erected upon it 

 for the use of the school, back to Mr. Ander- 

 son. Alexander Agassiz. 

 Cambridge, Mass., September 4, 1802. 



HOLE OR HOLL? 

 Editor Popular Science Monthly : 



Sir : A letter from Mr. Joseph Story Fay, 

 addressed to "Prof. Edward F. Fernald, 

 Centre College, Pa.," was received by Prof. 

 H. T. Fernald, State College, Centre County, 

 Pa., and by him was sent to me — for whom 

 its remarkably accurate writer intended it. 

 In his letter Mr. Fay takes exception to the 

 allusion to " Wood's Holl," in my article on 

 Changes in Chemical and Geographical 

 Words in the September Monthly, as "the 

 meaningless corruption of Wood's Hole ef- 

 fected by finical summer visitors." As to 

 who effected the change, my authority was 

 the United States Board on Geographic 

 Names, which says in its first report (1891), 

 "The name, which was originally Wood's 

 Hole, was changed several years ago by the 

 summer residents of the place to Wood's 

 Holl." But Mr. Fay says there were no 

 summer visitors there when the change was 

 made, and, as he has lived in the town over 

 forty years, doubtless he knows. 



Mr. Fay also incloses a pamphlet giving 

 the theory on which the change was based, 

 but I regret to say that it consists mainly of 

 " may be's " and " why not's." On this 

 point the Century Dictionary has the follow- 

 ing, under hole : 



" In 1875 the name WoocVs Hole was 

 changed to Wood's Hod, in conformity with 

 the (unfounded) supposition that hole in such 

 local names is a corruption of a Norse word 

 holl, meaning ' hill,' introduced by the Norse- 

 men in the tenth century, and preserved from 

 that remote period by the American Indians." 



This quotation follows the above : " This 

 [flag] was to be raised at a good anchoring- 

 place called Five-Fathom Hole.' 1 '' — Ellis, Voy- 

 age to Hudson's Bay (1748), p. 149. 



The village of Woods Holl takes its name 

 from the adjacent strait. Any one who re- 

 members the "swimming-hole" of his boy- 

 hood will see no need of explaining the word 

 hole as applied to a body of water by means of 

 the Norwegian word for the neighboring hill. 

 Very truly yours, 



Frederik A. Fernald. 

 New York, September 20, 1S92. 



