570 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



boards are made up ; another, in the fact 

 that so large a proportion of incompetents 

 are applying for positions, not forgetting 

 the highest ones. It is not strange that, 

 with such persons obtruding themselves, the 

 teacher is looked upon by such boards as 

 wc have as "an impracticable man, useful 

 enough to take care of boys and girls under 

 rules established by lawyers, doctors, and 

 business-men, but unfitted for participation 

 in any of the serious work of the commu- 

 nity." Mr. Bardecn, in looking for a reme- 

 dy for the low state of the business, holds 

 that it should not be thought to depend upon 

 higher salaries or pensions for retired teach- 

 ers, or fixed tenure of office — the teacher, if 

 matters were in a proper condition, should 

 be no more anxious about his annual re- 

 appointment than the bank-teller or insur- 

 ance president, who is sure of it so long as 

 he is this side of the St. Lawrence ! But 

 teachers should discriminate among them- 

 selves in favor of the most competent, should 

 be men among men, should see to it that 

 the differences in the results of good teach- 

 ing and poor teaching are proved, and em- 

 phasized, and illustrated, and should labor 

 to have the work of superior teachers rec- 

 ognized and secured. The average school 

 board is a checker-board, where the only 

 important consideration is that the square 

 be covered, with a button, if the real piece 

 is not at hand ; it should be like a chess- 

 board, where, " when a knight falls to the 

 carpet, you do not replace him by a pawn, 

 a rook, or a bishop ; and you will make al- 

 most any sacrifice to retain your queen. 

 One of these pawns may sometimes be a 

 queen, but not till by long probation and 

 many steps of progress it has won its po- 

 sition in the queen's row. There should 

 be a queen's row in teaching." 



The Value of the Conjto. — A letter from 

 Mr. Stanley, protesting against giving up the 

 control of the Congo to the Portuguese, 

 which was read in the Geographical Section 

 of the British Association, gives a magnifi- 

 cent idea of the value of what that river is 

 capable of contributing to the advance of 

 civilization. " Despite every prognostica- 

 tion to the contrary," says Mr. Stanley, 

 "this river will yet redeem the lost conti- 

 nent. By itself it forms a suflicient pros- 



pect; but, when you consider its magnifi- 

 cent tributaries which flow on each side, 

 giving access to civilization to what seemed 

 hopelessly impenetrable a few years ago, the 

 reality of the general utility and benefit to 

 these dark tribes fills the sense with admi- 

 ration. Every step I take increases my en- 

 thusiasm for my work and confirms my first 

 impressions. Give 1,000 miles to the main 

 channel, 300 to the Kwango, 120 to Lake 

 Matcnba, 300 to the Mobimbu, probably 800 

 to the Kaissai, 300 to the Saukuru, 500 to 

 the Aruwimi, and 1,000 more to undiscov- 

 ered degrees, for there is abundant space to 

 concede so much, and you have 4,520 miles 

 of navigable water." 



A New Zealand Ice-Care. — The Whau- 

 gachu River, of New Zealand, rises in an im- 

 mense, deep, perpendicular walled ravine on 

 the slopes of Mount Ruapehu, in which its 

 descent is varied by a succession of water- 

 falls—" Horseshoe," " Bridal-A\'il," etc., va- 

 rying from 150 to 400 feet in height. "At 

 one point, where the scene is hemmed in 

 with towering precipices of 1 ,000 feet high 

 and a glacier-slope in front, the gorge," says 

 Mr. Nicholls, " wound in such a way that 

 none of the surrounding country could be 

 seen, and there was nothing but the blue 

 heavens above to relieve the frigid glare of 

 the ice, the cold glitter of the snow, and the 

 dreary tints of the frowning, fire-scorched 

 rocks. Right under the snowy glacier above 

 us were wide-yawning apertures, arched at 

 the top, and framed as it were with ice in 

 the form of rude portals, through which the 

 waters of the river burst in a continuous 

 stream. We entered the largest of these 

 singular structures, and found ourselves in 

 a cave of some 200 feet in circumference, 

 whose sides of black volcanic rock were 

 sheeted with ice and festooned with icicles. 

 At the farther end was a wide cavernous 

 opening, so dark that the waters of the 

 river, as they burst out of it in a foaming, 

 eddying stream down the center of the cave, 

 looked doubly white in comparison with the 

 black void out of which they came. The 

 roof of the cave was formed of a mass of 

 frozen snow, fashioned into oval-shaped de- 

 pressions, all of one uniform size, and so 

 beautifully and mathematically precise in 

 outline as to resemble the quaint designs of 



I 



