130 First Conference 



chrysalids already dormant in their quiet resting- 

 places, snails with their shells sealed up in the 

 recesses of the dry dyke, frogs buried in the mud 

 of the pond, and so on, may be found to illustrate 

 vividly that to many animals autumn is literally the 

 evening of the year, when they go to sleep and await 

 the good morning of another spring. 



Here, again, there should be cross reference to the 

 study of plant-life — to the withering and fall of the 

 leaves, to the autumn fruits and the scattering seeds; 

 and inter-relations should be again illustrated by the 

 way in which earth-worms use the fallen leaves, or by 

 the r6le of birds and other animals in the dispersal 

 of seeds. Of these facts there are in the exhibition 

 three or four very praiseworthy illustrations. 



My particular examples might be multiplied in- 

 definitely; my point is, that by a few real and well- 

 illustrated studies we have to try to get our scholars 

 to recognize and feel the various notes of the year's 

 curfew — notes of decay, of rest, of preparation, of 

 promise, and much more. 



To put my point concretely, I feel strongly that 

 there is something wholly condemnatory of our 

 methods when school children, living by the banks 

 of a river rich in salmon, grow up unaware of the 

 broad facts regarding the migrations of these fishes. 

 I feel strongly that there is something seriously 

 wrong when school work fails entirely to shed light, 

 for instance, upon one of the most impressive sights 

 which tens of thousands of country children see on 

 their way to school in autumn — the innumerable 

 multitude of spiders' webs and threads made con- 

 spicuous on hedgerow and heath by the morning 



