THE 



NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 



DEVOTED PRIMARILY TO ALL SCIENTIFIC STUDIES OF NATURE IN 



ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 



Published monthly expect June, July and August. Subscription price, including mem- 

 bership in the American Nature Study Society $1.50 per year (nine issues). Canadian post- 

 age 10 cents extra, foreign postage, 20 cents extra. 



Editorial 



The Chicago Nature-Study Club 



To a country person, like the Editor, Chicago seems a strange 



place for the forming of an active, hiking, nature-study club. The 



miles aad miles of closely "built up" streets, the swift, endless 



procession of automobiles, the city atmosphere and th^ city noises 



would seem an unsurmountable bar to the enjoyment of anything 



in the realm of nature. However, Chicago has the advantage of 



being situated on the shore of a gr^at inland sea, and it has many 



parks and the nature-study possible in parks has never received 



the attention that it deserves; moreover Lake Michigan has 



thrown up and with the wind's aid has sculptured miles and miles 



of dunes, the work being helped or hindered by a willful, adaptable, 



determined vegetation which manages to succeed, by hook or 



crook, in the job of binding the waves, which old Canute failed to 



accomplish with mere chains. But, when all is said, it is people 



and not place that make a nature-study club ; — people bom to the 



freedom of open skies, and wide, flower decked prairies, born to the 



love of living things whether plant or animal, born with open, 



inquiring minds and with a desire to know something of the planet 



on which we live. Of such is the Chicago Nature-study Club 



composed. Many of its members are imprisoned in office walls 



during the working days of the week but find freedom on holidays 



and on Sundays when they seek a place to worship* as did Emily 



Dickenson who found a church 



With a bobolink for a chorister, 

 And an orchard for a dome. 



Some keep the sabbath in surDhce; 



I just wear my wings 

 And instead of toUing the bell for church, 



Our little sexton sings, 



God preaches, — a noted clergyman, — ■ 



And the sermon is never long; 

 So, instead of getting to heaven at last, 



I am going all along. 



93 



