Vol. XXrV. No. ii.] 
POPULAR SCIENCE NEWS. 
167 
me Out-Door CUorld. 
Edited by HARLAN H. BALLARD, 
President of the Agassiz Association. 
[P. O. Address, Pittsfield, Mass.] 
The Agassiz Association was established 
for the purpose of training its membei-s' to 
observe closely, and to think clearly and inde- 
pendently. It deals with the natural sciences 
in fl natural and scientific manrter, placing 
objects in the hands of all students, and 
neglecting books, except when used as guides 
to personal work. All its courses are op- 
tional, and all its work is voluntar}'. The 
Lssociation has adhered to this plan from the 
eginning, fifteen years ago, when it was not 
popular as now, and, as a consequence, 
^as become recognized as an important factor 
American education. The good results 
its work are becoming increasingly appar- 
it now that those who joined it in youth are 
jming to the years of maturity. Its mem- 
ers have furnished and will furnish many 
Editions to the roll of teachers of science, 
jllege professors, chemists, engineers, phy- 
:ians, and electricians. Each week brings 
letter from some young man, who, having 
lined his first impulse and training in the 
jigassiz Association, is now about to enter 
kpon a life of extended service in a school, 
jllege, laboratory, or professional office. A 
few days ago, a young man called at the 
resident's office to express his gratitude for 
ie benefits he had received from the Agassiz 
fAssociation. He said: "Personally, I am 
reatly indebted to the A. A. I am on my 
ray to Boston, where, through my connection 
"with the A. A., I have obtained a position 
^ith a prominent professor of mineralogy, to 
assist him in the care of his specimens. At 
lie same time, I shall study at the Evening 
ligh School, and fit myself for entrance to 
^the Institute of Technology. For this oppor- 
iinity, and for the little I know of science, I 
km wholly indebted to the Agassiz Associa- 
Bon, and you may be sure I shall always 
irork for its interests. In a curious way my 
Chapter in Bufialo gains by losing me ; for 
By success has made the advantages of mem- 
ership in the Agassiz Association so evident, 
bat no less than four young men have, on 
tthat account alone, been led to ajsply to our 
feChapter for admission." 
Since this pleasant visit, — which is only 
one of scores of a like nature, — we have 
received a letter from Fitchburg, Mass., say- 
ng: "The President of our Chapter is in 
^.mherst Agricultural College. //e would 
\evcr have been there had he not been a 
tember of the Agassiz Association." 
4«> 
A LETTER from a young man in New 
Jersey, wiio has been a member of the A. A. 
3r several years, brings the news that, having 
made one of the finest archasological collec- 
tions in the State, he proposes to present it to 
the Historical Society of his county, and, 
moreover, that he is going to erect a fine 
building, one floor of which he will freely 
give to this society for its meetings, library, 
and museum. And yet this young student is 
not quite "of age." He promises to con- 
tribute several thousand dollars towards a 
fund for the Agassiz Association, as soon as 
he shall become twenty-one and the controller 
of his own estate. Thus our Association, 
like a mother having " nourished and brousht 
up children," may hope, in her turn, to 
receive from them a large measure of filial 
gratitude, affection, and care. 
In connection with this subject, it may not 
be out of place to state that the Agassiz 
Association has never yet, during its fifteen 
years of life, received so much as five dollars, 
either as a gift or bequest. It will continue 
to live and work in the future, as in the past, 
with no assistance from without, if need be ; 
but it often seems not wholly unreasonable to 
hope that its- quiet, but wide-reaching influ- 
ence for good, and its manifest power in 
educating and inspiring young men and 
women, may attract the attention of some 
man or woman desirous of linking his or her 
name with a beneficent institution, and that 
from some unexpected source a liberal endow- 
ment may be received, which will relieve the 
society from the embarrassment, and esjaecially 
from the limitations, which attend an empty 
treasury. It is a significant fact that the 
Agassiz Association has never had a treas- 
urer. This paragraph is thrown out upon 
the waters plowed by the keel of Popular 
Science News, with the hope that it may 
return after a few days ! 
<♦> 
But the question of endowment may safely 
be left to take care of itself. There will 
always be generous men who will give of their 
abundance to such institutions as seem to them 
most worthy. One selects some distant mis- 
sionary field ; another gives to some poverty- 
stricken or to some very wealthy college ; 
another, to a society for the prevention 
of docking horses' tails ; and when the Agas- 
siz Association shall have proved that hy the 
training of young men and women in habits 
of intelligent observation, patient, thorough 
work, and manly thinking, it deserves a place 
among the beneficent institutions of the land, 
it will un3oubtedly receive its due share 
of recognition at the hands of philanthropists 
and at the pens of testators. We wish now 
simply to invite all those who are interested 
in any bright young people, or in any depart- 
ment of natural science on their own account, 
to join the Agassiz Association and induce 
their friends to join, and test its methods and 
prove its advantages for themselves. It costs 
nothing to make the experiment. 
AWARD OF THE PRIZE. 
As previously announced in this journal, 
the editor of the Popular Science News, 
appreciating the good work of the Agassiz 
As,sociation, and desiring to emphasize the 
importance of its plan of leading all its 
members to use their own eyes and fingers, 
offered a fine Bausch & Lomb microscope as 
a prize for the best set of "Notes of Personal 
Observations" made during the summer now 
clo.sed. 
The papers sent in competition have sur- 
passed all expectation in the matter of excel- 
lence, and the task of deciding which one is, 
on the whole, the best, has been one of unusual 
difficulty. It is always hard to award a prize, 
and the statement that a "decision has been 
macte after gj-eat hesitation," etc., is as thread- 
bare as a boy's knees in marble-time. Yet it 
usually happens in contests of this kind that 
two or three papers stand out at once from 
the mass, marked by evident tokens of supe- 
riority. The difficulty usually comes in decid- 
ing between two or three. But in this case, 
no less than half a dozen papers are so nearly 
equal in merit, and at the same time so utterly 
different in topic and method, that no com- 
mittee has ever been more grievously per- 
plexed. 
With this premise, the microscope is hereby 
awarded to Mr. J. E. Walter, Secretary 
of Chapter 834, Peru, Indiana. Honorable 
mention is awarded to each of the following : 
Theodore G. White, Secretary Chapter 949, 
New York, N. Y., (Z) ; Amadeus Grabau, 
Secretary Chapter 551, (Corresponding Geo- 
logical Chapter), Buffalo, N. Y., (E) ; Dr. 
Mary D. Hussey, Chapter 652, East Orange, 
N. J., (C) ; Mrs. Sarah S. Fuller, Chapter 
27, Boston, (B) ; Mrs. A. C. Whitcomb, Mil- 
waukee, Wis. ; Mary E. Cherington, Chapter 
591, Boston; and Willard N. Clute, Bing- 
hamton, N. Y. 
We shall give selections from nearly all the 
papers entered in competition for the prize, 
and this month present the following from 
the note-books of Messrs. Grabau and Clute, 
intending to give the whole or a part of the 
winning paper in some later issue. 
GEOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS — SUMMER 
OF 1890. 
BY AMADEUS W. GRABAU, 
UUKFALO, N. Y. 
An Underground Water-course.— Although I 
had often heard of streams which follow their beds 
for some distance and then suddenly disap;)ear, I 
never had an opportunity to examine one of these 
streams myself, until recently I came upon one quite 
unexpectedly. While out on a botanical excursion, 
in the northern part of Buffalo, searching ibr tlie 
rare Epipactis, along the banks of Skajauqu,- da (or 
Conjockedy) Creek, my attention was called to the 
stream, which, shortly after entering Forest Lawn 
Cemetery, disappeared in a crevice in the rocky bed. 
Upon closer examination, the following interesting 
facts were disclosed : The bed of the stream is 
