176 
NATURE 
[JUNE 19, 1902 
which books only are concerned, and that we do not 
teach either science or Latin, mathematics or modern 
languages primarily to produce the habit of command, but 
because the habit of command and the ability to act with 
decision have a tenfold value in the man who is many- 
sided in his knowledge and experience and who, in the 
language of the street, ‘knows where he is” in many 
departments of human activity. 
The object of a training in experimental science is 
not to stuff the mind with knowledge, as so many 
still seem to think, but to open and prepare it to 
receive and rightly apply knowledge in the after working 
years of life. Those persons are indeed ignorant who 
suppose that in a modern course of work, let us say, 
in physics, a boy’s mind is “stuffed with knowledge ” or 
that a course of work in electricity gives less play to 
the imagination than getting up vocabularies or irregular 
verbs. But we must not follow a bad example ; these 
things also make for goodness in their degree. 
As we have said above, the report of the Committee 
has, as regards its main features, been received with 
a chorus of approval, and little remains to be said about 
it. We think the proposal of an expert educational 
committee with advisory powers excellent. We are giad 
that whilst science and Latin are alternative subjects in 
Class I.,the subject not taken as a Class I. subject can 
be taken as a Class II. subject. Atthe same time, we 
regret that Sir Michael Foster did not succeed in pre- 
vailing on his colleagues to embody in their final recom- 
mendations the admirable opinion which we quote at the 
beginning of this article. 
If we may judge from the tenor of the discussion at 
the Conference of Science Masters last Christmas, we 
think the proposed changes in regard to practical work 
in chemistry will be widely welcomed. Butif this reform 
is to work well, no attempt must be made to add the new 
scheme of practical work to the old requirements in 
qualitative analysis. The time which did not suffice for 
the latter alone cannot be sufficient for both together. 
We believe, too, that many teachers both of chemistry 
and physics would be most willing to see the scope of 
the syllabus in their special subject reduced a little, in 
order to secure that all candidates taking science should 
include in their work the “pass part” portions of both 
the chemical and physical divisions of science. 
A HOLIDAY CRUISE TO ALASKA} 
{pee two handsome and magnificently illustrated 
volumes should be brought to the notice of every 
man of wealth as a lesson in the art of spending a holi- 
day. He will learn therefrom how this may be done 
with permanent satisfaction to himself and permanent 
advantage to science. 
In a pointedly brief and unassuming preface the patron 
of the expedition explains that, having planned a summer 
cruise through Alaskan waters for himself and his family, 
he found that the steamer which he had chartered would 
accommodate a larger party, and therefore resolved to 
seek “some guests who, while adding to the interest 
and pleasure of the expedition, would gather useful in- 
formation and distribute it for the benefit of others.” 
By the advice of his physician he obtained the aid of 
Dr. C. Hart Merriam, chief of the Biological Survey of 
ane U.S. Department of Agriculture, in carrying out this 
plan. 
The outcome is succinctly stated in the introduction 
(pp. xxv-xxxi) by Dr. Merriam, who has most capably 
1 “Alaska. Harriman Alaska Expedition, 1899.” 2 vols. Royal 8vo. 
Pp. xxxvii + 383, with 39 coloured plates, 85 photogravure plates, 240 
text figures and 5 maps. Vol. i. Narrative, Glaciers, Natives. Vol. ii. 
History, Geography, Resources. By many authors. (New York: Double- 
day, Page and Co., 1gor.) 
NO. 1703, VOL. 66] 
fulfilled his duties as general editor to the records of the 
cruise :— 
“In the early spring of 1899 Mr. Edward H. Harriman of 
New York, in cooperation with the Washington Academy of 
Sciences but entirely at his own expense, organised an expedi- 
tion to Alaska. He invited as his guests three artists and 
twenty-five men of science, representing various branches of 
research and including well known professors in universities on 
both sides of the continent, and leaders in several branches of 
Government scientific work. . The expedition sailed from 
Seattle May 30 . . . and was gone just two months.” 
The ship threaded the ‘“‘inside passages” from Puget 
Sound to Juneau, Skagway and Sitka ; thence along the 
open coast to Cook Inlet and the Alaska Peninsula, and 
past the Aleutian Islands into Bering Sea, up to the 
entrance to Bering Strait, touching at Eskimo settle- 
ments on both the Asiatic and American coasts, and 
then turning homeward. The voyage was not in itself 
in any way remarkable ; the interest centres in the per- 
sonnel and methods of the expedition. 
As for the personnel—the following list will show 
that the selected scientific party was qualified to take 
advantage of every opportunity. Botany was represented 
by F. V. Coville and T. H. Kearney, jun., of the U.S. 
Department of Agriculture, and by Prof. B. E. Fernow, 
of Cornell, Dr. A. Saunders and Dr. W. Trelease ; 
zoology in its various branches by Dr. W. R. Coe, of 
Yale, D. G. Elliot, of the Field Columbian Museum, 
Dr. A. K. Fisher and Dr. C. H. Merriam, of the U.S. 
Department of Agriculture, R. Ridgway, of the Wash- 
ington National Museum, C. A. Keeler, of the San 
Francisco Museum, Prof. W. E. Ritter, of the Uni- 
versity of California, Prof. T. Kincaid, of the Uni- 
versity of Washington State, and Dr. G. B. Grinnell ; 
geology and geography by Dr. W. H. Dall, G. K. Gilbert 
and H. Gannett, of the U.S. Geological Survey, and 
Prof. B. K. Emerson, of Amherst ; mineralogy by Dr. 
C. Palache, of Harvard, and W. B. Devereux ; meteor- 
ology by Prof. W. H. Brewer, of Yale ; and nature-lore 
in its literary aspect by John Burroughs and John Muir. 
Of the three artists on the ship Mr. L. A. Fuertes 
was a specialist in bird-portraiture—sixteen of the many 
beautiful coloured plates which adorn these volumes 
attesting his skill. We learn, moreover, that a fourth 
artist was sent to Alaska in the following year for the 
special purpose of securing drawings and paintings of 
Alaskan plants ! The expedition also included two photo- 
graphers, two taxidermists, two stenographers; with a 
chaplain, two physicians and a trained nurse. The 
Harriman family party numbered eleven. 
As for the methods—these seem to have been in every 
wayadmirable. Under unskilful management the scheme 
would probably have come to nought through the stress 
of divergent interests. But the patron of the expedition 
met the occasion like a whole-hearted democrat. His 
procedure is thus described by Dr. Merriam :— 
‘The day after leaving New York Mr. Harriman called to- 
gether the members of the Expedition and announced that it 
was not his desire to dictate the route to be followed, or to 
control the details of the work. In accordance with his wishes 
a business organization was effected, comprising an executive 
committee, a committee on route and plans, and special com- 
mittees on the various scientific activities. These committees, 
throughout the voyage, held frequent meetings and determined 
from day to day the operations of the expedition. . . . 
‘*Among the unusual features which contributed to the 
success of the Expedition, three are worthy of special mention : — 
“¢(1) Theship had no business other than to convey the party 
whithersoever it desired to go. Her route was entrusted to a 
committee comprising the heads of the various departments of 
research ; so that from day to day and hour to hour her move- 
ments were made to subserve the interests of the scientific 
work, 
‘*(2) The scientific staff represented varied interests and was 
made up of men trained in special lines of research. 
