DECEMBER 22, 1899. ] 
teacher who has no time for research rapidly 
becomes an ineffective and uninspiring 
teacher, and that overteaching defeats its 
own ends,” the instruction should be in the 
nature of a guiding, the giving not of a 
string of recipes, but of sound principles en- 
abling the student to work out his own sal- 
vation. 
Since, wherever he may go, the student 
must adapt himself to his environment, it is 
the plan to catch what we can and study 
what we catch rather than to follow fixed 
courses. The facilities for catching, how- 
ever, are very favorable. We have the 
lake in front of us, the woods behind, 
the creek on one side, and a meadow on 
the other. Here the entire day of the 
student is given to collecting and explor- 
ing expeditions, lectures and laboratory 
work. 
During the past summer courses of in- 
struction have been given in zoology, 
botany, cytology, bacteriology, embryology, 
and survey methods. As soon as the nec- 
essary buildings can be secured, courses in 
neurology and comparative psychology and 
physiology will be added. 
The department of instruction is self-sus- 
taining, but facilities for research are still 
limited and here is an opportunity for some 
public spirited citizen. 
‘“* Research in all directions, in fact, meets 
with such reward that it should be sustained 
by all persons who desire to encourage the 
progress of knowledge. But the rich men 
of our country do not discriminate between 
this function and that of teaching. They 
found universities with princely liberality, 
but research has to struggle with poverty of 
means and deficiency of time. Great libra- 
ries are founded, but the work in the labora- 
tory from which issue the books which create 
libraries receives comparatively little sub- 
stantial encouragement. * * * Initiative 
and discovery are the conditions of prog- 
ress, and no better service could be ren- 
SCIENCE, 929 
dered to humanity than the creation of 
opportunities for their activity.”’ 
C. H. ErigznmMann. 
SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 
Alaska and the Klondike. By ANGELO HEIL- 
PRIN. New York, D. Appleton &Co. 1899. 
8°, pp. X, 315, illustrations and maps. 
Professor Heilprin has given us a book which 
is a combination of personal travel and adven- 
ture, with statistics, a synopsis of mining laws, 
and other data interesting to the traveller or 
miner. With these, which do not especially 
concern the readers of SCIENCE, are some 
observations on the physical geography and 
geology which are deserving of consideration. 
The author started from Skaguay by the 
White Pass route, July 30, 1898, arriving at 
Dawson, August 6th, and leaving on the 20th 
of September, for the outside world by the 
same route. The general geology of this region 
had previously been studied by McConnell, 
Dawson, Spurr, Russell and others, whose ob- 
servations may be found recorded in the publi- 
cations of the Dominion and United States geo- 
logical surveys. 
Professor Heilprin found the summer climate 
not unpleasant, and, mirabile dictu, encountered 
no mosquitos in the miningregion. So his sur- 
vey of the geological conditions was not inter- 
fered with by annoyances which disturbed the 
philosophic calm of most of his predecessors in 
the same field. 
He notes conditions which confirm the opin- 
ions held by previous explorers as to the 
probable existence of large bodies of fresh 
water over much of the present placer region. 
The well-known bed of volcanic ash which ex- 
tends for hundreds of miles along the Upper 
Yukon a little below the present surface of 
the ground, is believed by him to have been 
deposited in water. In the alluvium above 
and below it he noticed fresh water shells ina 
fossil state, a feature which has been observed 
in many places lower down the river. Though 
these deposits are entirely compatible with the 
hypothesis of the existence of an extensive lake 
in the region, they cannot be adduced in proof 
of it, since the small summer pools which are 
