THE 



NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 



Vol. 17 April, 192 i No. 4 



The First Nature-lore School 



W. G. ViNAL 



The summer camp is evolving a nature-study method of its own. 

 It is not class-room science. It is not camp botany. It is not 

 information at the expense of inspiration. It is not naming birds 

 and trees. It is coming to be called nature-lore instead of nature- 

 study. It is a spirit unto itself. It is an atmosphere that one 

 must experience before he can impart it. It is an active love for 

 nature. 



The National Association of the Directors of Girls Camps at 

 their Boston Meeting in the winter of 1920 voted to hold a Nature- 

 lore School for Camp Councilors during the last of the following 

 June. Mrs. Charlotte Gulick of the Luther Gulick Camps and 

 Miss Laura I. Mattoon of Camp Kehonka, with Mr. William G. 

 Vinal of Camp Chequesset as Chairman were appointed as a 

 committee of three to work out the idea. 



This school was held at Camp Chequesset, Wellfieet, Massa- 

 chusetts, Down on Cape Cod from June 22 to June 29, 1920. 



Chequesset is located on the coast where earth sculpturing is 

 written simplest and largest. Lake sh )Te lines are interpreted by 

 Cape Cod cliffs and bays. There are also young rivers and mean- 

 dering streams, bog deposits, glacial drift, shifting dunes, and primi- 

 tive peat. 



Scientists know Cape Cod as the meeting place of plants and 

 animals. These forms find their way there from the cold north 

 and the sunny clime of the south. Many mountain plants venture 

 into the cold bogs. It is cosmopolitan nature, an ideal spot for the 

 naturalist. 



The program varied with the spirit of the weather. It consisted 

 of: 



A Half Day Around Camp — Gardening, notebook, nature games, 

 leaf printing, bird calls, microscope, tow-net, aquarium, vivarium. 



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