YOUNG NATURALISTS IN THE MAKING 237 



on every expedition we take together, and hardly a day passes 

 when some new secret is not unravelled. 



A fund of humour often creeps* unconsciously into Nature 

 lessons in class, and I had an apt example of this recently when 

 I was telling the pupils of Raphael's picture of " The miraculous 

 draught of Fishes." I was pointing out that the great Italian 

 painter made two grievous errors in his picture, for he painted 

 his Lobsters red, and there are no Lobsters in the Sea of Galilee ! 

 But the point of my story is that, on asking the boys : " Now, 

 who was Raphael ? " one young hopeful replied without a 

 moment's hesitation : " Please, Sir, he used to play for Surrey ! " 



The children use note and sketch books, and, when the weather 

 is unpropitious, they visit the local museum, where they find 

 objects of natural and human history displayed connected with 

 the past and present life of their own neighbourhood. I have been 

 much impressed with the importance of this fact in regard to 

 the boys and girls who are my own pupils. A regional museum 

 enables them to concentrate their attention in a way that cart- 

 loads of curios would not do. A museum deserving of support 

 should be a storehouse of regional objects, not a miscellaneous 

 assortment of Egyptian mummies and shattered aeroplanes, 

 a sort of Bagdad bazaar. Rather it should be the aim of a local 

 museum to set out in natural sequence the Geological, Archaeo- 

 logical, Periodical, Zoological, and Botanical features of the 

 neighbourhood in which it is situated, and should be made so 

 attractive as to invite inspection, rather than to present the 

 appearance of a deadhouse, or mortuary, as so many provincial 

 museums unfortunately do. 



Having a local museum close at hand, which school children 

 can visit, either in class, or individually, affords them a living 

 interest in it, and although the one with which I am myself in- 

 timately associated has only been in existence a matter of three 

 years, our museum at Letchworth already contains a number 

 of objects collected by the children themselves, and in which 

 they take especial pride. 



Perhaps the bird collection makes the strongest appeal to both 

 girls and boys, but girls in particular. They are encouraged to 

 sketch these in black and white, or coloured chalks, during the 

 course of an hour's visit, and to make original notes regarding 

 same. This head and hand work impresses the form, colour, 

 and general appearance of a bird upon them, and I have been 

 surprised many times when a young child has accurately identi- 



