Apeil 20, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



377 



1. State game farms, where wild game may 

 be propagated, for distribution to public and 

 private preserves. 



2. Reserves, where the wild life may be 

 maintained — forest and game preserves. 



There should be not only one great state 

 preserve like the Adirondack State Park, but 

 every county in the state of 'New York should 

 have its own smaller reserve, made out of the 

 waste land that is still cheap and available. 

 There is land in every county of the state that 

 would be of far more worth if put to raising 

 timber and game. We have talked much about 

 reforestation: we have practised it little. 



Portions of such public reserves should be 

 kept as sanctuaries, free alike from the hunter, 

 the lumberman and the engineer ; and in these 

 every wild thing, not harmful to the public, 

 should find a place, and should be let alone. 

 These places would serve as centers of natural 

 propagation and dispersal for wild game spe- 

 cies; but they would also keep from extermi- 

 nation many other things in which the hunter 

 is not interested. 



They would serve the interests of the public 

 at large by preserving to future generations 

 some of the wealth of life with which nature 

 has endowed our country. There are three im- 

 portant reasons why it should be preserved: 



1. Its esthetic value. Many of the wild 

 things, both plants and animals, are interest- 

 ing and wonderfully beautiful. 



2. Its educational value: many of these 

 things are important for teaching purposes; 

 and the youth has a right to know what the 

 native life of his native land was like; other- 

 wise he will not be able to understand its 

 early history. 



3. Its possibilities of undeveloped economic 

 values. We are only at the beginning of 

 knowledge how to best utilize our natural re- 

 sources. We should not exterminate the wild 

 species. We do not know what use the future 

 will have for them. Though they are all prod- 

 ucts of the evolution of the ages, they may be 

 quickly destroyed, as the history of the pass- 

 ing of the wild pigeon shows. Once gone, they 

 are gone forever. The interest that the pub- 

 lic has in keeping them is in the long run far 



more important than the interest of the hunter 

 in shooting or the farmer in raising crops. 



James G. Needham 

 Cornell University 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 



THE TEACHERS' SCHOOL OF SCIENCE 



The Teachers' School of Science, Boston, 

 announces a summer excursion to Alaska un- 

 der the charge of Professor Geo. H. Barton. 

 The party will leave Boston on July 6, and 

 after a visit to Toronto, will pass through 

 Lakes Huron and Superior, making a short 

 stop at Sault Ste. Marie. It will then visit 

 Port Williams and Winnipeg, and spend four 

 days at Jasper Park in the Mount Eobson 

 region, thence to Prince Rupert, along the 

 Skeena River to Skagway by steamer, via the 

 Inside Passage and the Lynn Canal (fiord), 

 stopping at Wrangall and Juneau. The party 

 will then go by rail over the White Pass and 

 down the Yukon to Dawson by steamer. Re- 

 turning, the party will visit Lake Atlin, Van- 

 couver, Seattle and Tacoma, spend three days 

 at Mount Ranier and five days in Glacier Na- 

 tional Park. A day each will be spent in Chi- 

 cago and Toronto, and thence the journey will 

 be by steamer through the Thousand Islands 

 and the Lachine Rapids to Montreal and rail 

 to Boston. 



The school will also give its annual field 

 lessons in geology and botany. The schedule 

 of the courses follows : 



April 21, Fitcliburg — Tourmaline crystals, beryl, 

 mica, feldspar; bathylith, granite, concentric 

 jointing; a monadnoek. 



April 28, Medford — Decomposition and disintegra- 

 tion (exceptional) ; frost action, talus. 



May 5, Hudson — Bed of dolomite in mica scMst, 

 with wernerite, sahlite, titanite, etc.; drumlins 

 and channels of a glacial stream. 



May 12, Quincy — Bathylith, granite, erupted into 

 Cambrian slates with much contact phenomena. 



May 19, Cedar Grove — Transverse fault; anticlinal 

 fold; melaphyr, tuffs, shale. 



May 26, Brighton — Old lava flows; igneous intru- 

 sions and dykes ; amygdaloidal melaphyr ; quartz, 

 epidote, caleite, etc., alteration minerals. 



May 30, Annual Pield Reunion, Wayside Inn and 

 Nobscot. 



