EVOLUTION. 93 



task a most delightful and pleasant task, I admit 

 of sketching, for my readers' benefit, the history of 

 Penikese Island; what crowds of memories press 

 around and upon me: Memories that I have written 

 about and memories that I have not written about, 

 but which yet hover around and about places hallow- 

 ed by the mysterious ever present presence of him 

 whose memory is dear to so many. As I draw near 

 to the conclusion of my task, I say, I fear for both what 

 I have written and what I have not written. What I 

 have written, that it ought not to have been written, 

 and what I have not written that it ought to have been 

 written. Yet, such as it, it must stand. My object 

 has been not to transcribe to you a dull, dry, monot- 

 onous diary of facts difficult to digest, but rather, 

 by a taste of our pleasures and enjoyments, to leave 

 the mind of the reader in a state of anticipation and 

 desire to explore Nature and the mysteries of Na- 

 ture ;for, thereby, is gained profit, delight, wonder, 

 satisfaction, and everything that is in harmony with 

 our being and our eternal welfare. We come nearer 

 to our fellowman and closer to our God, in a study of 

 all creation and of created objects; and so, at least 

 thus I believe, do we fulfill better our mission here 

 upon the earth, to ''know even as we are known." 



During the session of the school the Agassiz Natur- 

 al History Club met weekly for discussion of scientific 

 subjects, and for suggestions as to the work going for- 

 ward and to be pursued. Here teacher and pupil met 

 upon equal footing and freely discussed all questions. 

 Even practical Professor Meyer became eminently 

 scientific and, at a suggestion, turned his physics to 

 the settling of many an otherwise abstruce problem. 

 Of one in particular, namely, that of testing, by act- 

 ual experiment, if insects could hear with their anten- 

 nae that delicate organ of the functions of which we 

 know so little. He so arranged a male mosquito, 

 upon one of the slides of his lantern, that he threw its 

 image, enlarged several thousand times, upon a large 

 white sheet. Then he vibrated tuning forks near to 



