September 30, 1892.] 



SCIENCE. 



185 



huge rocks and boulders. They varied somewhat in size, though 

 averaging about a foot in diameter, outside measure. They were 

 uniform in color, made of fine feathers and down plucked from 

 the breast, the vrhole effect being dull gray. The eggs were 

 from three to six in number, of a dull grayish-green or drab 

 color, which varied slightly in the different nests. The average 

 of fifty-one eggs from thirteen nests is 3.05 X 2.00. The female, 

 if startled, deposits excrement, and partially covers the nest with 

 down by a quick back motion of her feet. In many nests exam- 

 ined this was not the case, and in all probability the female was 

 away feeding at the time of our arrival. Nearly all of our party 

 reported the same in the nests of startled birds. Whether done 

 to conceal the eggs or whether done through fright is entirely a 

 matter of conjecture. 



At the time of our visit to Duck Islands, incubation was begun 

 in nearly all cases; in many far advanced; and though several 

 barrels of eggs were collected, there were but very few which 

 would be of any use to Peary. The birds, though to us they 

 seemed very abundant, were thought by Captain Pike to be rather 

 scanty in number. Probably some Arctic whaler had been there 

 before us. This supposition may have been correct, as the sets 



relatively much greater than in the larger cities, partly because 

 these schools receive considerable accessions from the surrounding 

 country, and partly because the smaller towns are not well sup- 

 plied with private and technical schools to divide the attendance. 

 So it comes about that a large part of the membership of the pub- 

 lic secondary schools of our land is found in the villages and 

 minor cities. In many of these towns education is a leading in- 

 terest, the teachers are a favored and highly respected class, and 

 tbe schools are managed with vigor and intelligence. 



Now it is in the schools of these smaller cities and villages that 

 the graduates of the numerous normal schools of our land find 

 employment, either as superintendents, principals, or instructors. 

 The district or rural schools rarely feel that they can retain the 

 services of a trained teacher, so that the constant efl'ort of normal 

 faculties to induce their graduates to " go into the country and 

 build up the rural schools " are only moderately successful. In 

 the large cities the corps of teachers is usually recruited from the 

 local high school or training school with little aid from without, 

 and thus it becomes the distinctive work of the normal schools to 

 give tone to education in communities too small to support a 

 traininir school. 



of eggs we collected contained but from three to six, while most 

 authorities give from six to ten as the normal number. 



Besides the eider ducks, there was but little else of interest on 

 the islands. Two or three snowflakes, PlectopJianes nivalis (Linn) 

 Mayer, a northern phalecope, Lobipes hyperboreas (Linn), Cuv., 

 and a single king-eider, Somateria speetabilis (Linn) Boie, made 

 the entire list of birds. Several spiders and an ant, which was 

 not caught, made up the rest of animal life observed; although 

 there were several pools which looked as if they might be 

 worthy of investigation. 



The ' ' Kite" had been steaming constantly from place to place, to 

 avoid the bergs floating in the vicinity ; and at 12 M., much against 

 our wishes, we were recalled to pursue our journey northward. 



Reading, Pa., Sept. 19. 



PREPARATION OF TEACHERS OF SCIENCE AS CARRIED 

 FORWARD IN THE MICHIGAN STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. 



BY E. A. STRONG. 



The list of towns and villages in our country having a popula- 

 tion below 30,000, or even below 10,000, is a large one. In these 

 towns the number of pui^ils who attend a public high school is 



This is a great work, and it need hardly be said that it yet 

 wants much of even reasonably complete accomplishment. Still, 

 during the past few years there has been great improvement in 

 the training of teachers, and the normal schools of the land are 

 coming to deserve more and more the interest and sympathy of 

 the friends of sound learning. A concrete example may best ex- 

 hibit what the normal schools are doing or attempting, and the 

 department of the physical sciences in the Michigan State Normal 

 School will be used for this purpose. 



Of the thousand students in this school rather more than one- 

 half take the full or four-years' courses, and about one-third of 

 this number specialize their work in the direction either of the 

 biological or the physical sciences. Of those who elect the physi- 

 cal sciences about 63 per cent have during the past five years 

 come to the school certificated as graduates of "approved high 

 schools," 19 out of a class of 21 being the largest ratio and 18 out 

 of 63 the smallest. Of those who went out from the school be- 

 tween the years 1885 and 1890, 86 are teaching or have taught 

 physics in some high school, and fifty-four are teaching or have 

 taught chemistry. These numbers seem small; but it must not 

 be forgotten that many of these people take up teaching as a life- 

 work, and that the number of normal schools with a presumably 

 similar or better record is very considerable. 



