2 THE CANADIAN NATUKALIST. [March 



residence for the college, whose large endowment of nearly 

 $1,500,000 is being in great part retained by its trustees as a 

 Oasis for more extended operations than those of the present 

 " School of Mines." Still it is well adapted to its use, and has 

 been admirably arranged. Three of its long rooms, like the wards 

 of a hospital, but with tables and shelves instead of beds, are 

 fitted up as working laboratories in which a hundred and 

 twenty students may at once pursue qualitative and quantita- 

 tive analysis. Another room in the basement is furnished 

 with furnaces and other appliances for assaying in the dry way. 

 Another is arranged for drawing, and there are several plainly 

 furnished but commodious class rooms. One of the rooms is 

 devoted to the collection of minerals, which is very neatly 

 arranged in flat cases, with abundant illustrations of crystalline 

 forms interspersed. Another contains tiie collections of geology 

 and palaeontology, in great part consisting of the pi-ivate cabinet 

 of Professor Newberry, and especially rich in the flora of the coal 

 period, and in illustrations of the ores and other economic pro- 

 ducts of America. 



The staff of Columbia College consists of eighteen Professors, 

 lecturers, and assistants, representing the subjects of mineralogy, 

 metallurgy, chemistry, botany, mathematics, mechanics, physics, 

 geology and palaeontology, assaying and drawing. Its course 

 extends over three years, and embraces the work necessary to 

 qualify for practical operations in mineral surveying, mining, 

 metallurgy and practical chemistry. Students are required on 

 entrance to pass an examination in algebra, geometry and trigono- 

 metry. Though it has been in operation on its present basis only 

 for a few years, it had in its last catalogue 109 students, the 

 greater part of whom, on attaining to the degree of " Engineer of 

 Mines " or " Bachelor of Philosophy," will go out as practical 

 workers in mines and manufactories. An important feature of 

 the course is that students are expected in the vacation to visit 

 mines and metallurgical and chemical establishments, and to 

 report thereon and make illustrative collections ; while during the 

 session short excursions are made to machine shops and metal- 

 lurgical establishments in and near the city. It is probable that 

 Columbia College is little cared for or thought of by the greater 

 part of the busy multitudes of New York ; yet if a map of the 

 city were made on the principle of the missionary maps, but 

 illustrating the places where true industrial progress is being pro- 



