SECOND YEAR AT PENIKESE. /I 



crabs, which, as they peer cautiously out of their 

 shells, or travel rapidly about with their curious side- 

 long gait, resemble, somewhat, minute, full-grown 

 lobsters and amuse us all highly. There is some 

 talk of setting up a small windmill, that the supply 

 of water for our tanks may be regulated with some 

 degree of certainty, as necessity requires that it 

 should be. Our < 'finds" can then be all properly 

 cared for, and fresh water constantly furnished for 

 them, as is not now the case. Otherwise, we shall be 

 obliged to continue bringing in the water in pails and 

 letting it carefully into the tanks through rubber tub- 

 ing, which is now provided for that purpose. Thus 

 our general laboratory work, and plans for its further- 

 ance, progress as well as one could possibly expect 

 with the limited means at our command. 



While the students study hard during the day time, 

 they amuse themselves, in the evening, by strolling 

 about the island, sitting upon the balconies and en- 

 joying the delicious evening air and fresh, sea breezes, 

 or rowing or sailing over the cool, restless waters round 

 about the island. On Wednesday and Friday even- 

 ings Professor Meyer gives us delightful lectures -up- 

 on sound and hearing, illustrating his experiments 

 with the excellent and costly instruments brought 

 with him from the Stevens' Institute, Hoboken, New 

 Jersey, from which place the genial professor himself 

 hails. His lectures, though not compulsory, are at- 

 tended by everybody, both old and young, and the 

 lecturer is as great a favorite as what he tells us is in- 

 teresting and instructive. 



Occasionally we have lectures upon the lower forms 

 of animal life, by a Professor Barnard a rising young 

 naturalist, who enters quite deeply into the subject. 

 We have quite thorough descriptions of all the lower 

 forms both of animals and vegetables, but more 

 especially the former: those whose structure is that 

 of a simple, proto-plasmic mass, without any definite 

 form, or without (at times, apparently,) even the lit- 

 tle nucleus or life cell which is possessed by almost 



