SCIENCE. 



'{Vol. xxti. No. 561 



of us, and be reflected from some ilpper stratum of air of 

 different density from that below. -Hofer evidently con- 

 sidered himself responsible for an explanation of the ori- 

 gin of the sound, ancl frequently remarked that it remin- 

 ded him of the noise made by the escaping steam of the 

 so-called Steamboat Geyser, on the eastern shore of Yel- 

 lowstone Lake, about G miles from the outlet. I passed 

 between Steamboat Point and Stevenson's Island twice, 

 but was not near enough either time to hear the escaping 

 steam. Moreover, on each occasion the wind was blow- 

 ing a lively breeze in the direction of Steamboat Point. 

 On the afternoon of August 9th, at 3.20 p. m. while in a 

 row-boat on the south eastern arm of Yellowstone Lake, 

 near the entrance of the upper Yellowstone Eiver, 

 I heard a sound overhead, like rushing wind, or like some 

 invisible but comparatively dense bodj^ moving very ra- 

 pidly through the air, and not very far above our heads. 

 It appeared to be travelling from east to west. It did not 

 have the semi-metallic, vibrating, sky-filling, echoing re- 

 sonance of the overhead noises that I had heard before, 

 and was of rather shorter duration. It had, however, the 

 same sound-like rapidity of the other. The sky was clear 

 except for a few light fleecy and feathery clouds, and 

 there was just enough wind blowing to ruffle the surface 

 of the water. If this sound was produced by a current 

 of air in motion overhead, it is difficult to understand why 

 it did not give some account of itself, either in the clouds 

 that were floating at different levels in the upper air, or 

 among the pines which covered the slope that rose more 

 than 1000 feet above our heads, or on the waters of the 

 lake itself. 



I am inclined to attribute the typical echoing noise to 

 some initial sound, like that of escaping steam for example, 

 from some place like Steamboat Greyser, and which is re- 

 flected by some ujjper stratum of air, that is differently 

 heated from that below by the rays of the sun as they 

 come over the high mountain ridges to the east of the 

 lake. The sound may thus be reflected over the low di- 

 vides west to Shoshone, and south to Heart Lake, or even 

 farther in the direction of Jackson's Lake. I am not 

 strenuous for this theory, and will be glad to hear a bet- 

 ter explanation of this phenomenon. I have a dim recol- 

 lection of some legend of phantom huntsmen, and a pack 

 of ghostly but vocal hounds which haunt the sky of the 

 Hartz JMountains. Can any one tell whether there is any 

 natural phenomenon belonging to mountains or moun- 

 tain lakes, which could give foundation to such legend? 



The phenomenon has not yet been successfully ex- 

 plained, and I do not know that any similar phenomenon 

 has been observed elsewhere. 



It is to be hoped that some one will investigate the 

 matter soon and give a scientific explanation of its cause. 



THE PLACE OF MUSEUMS IN EDUCATION. 



BY THOMAS GREENWOOD, LONDON, ENGLAND. 



The most casual observer of educational methods could 

 not fail to notice that the receptive mind of a child or a 

 youth learns from an infinite variety of sources. We all 

 know that we begin at one end of education, but there is 

 no period in life of the most aged where the other end is 

 reached. Frequently, again, that information which 

 does not absolutely form part of the ordinary pro- 

 cess of education, but which comes from unexpected quar- 

 ters, is of as great a service in the development of the 

 mind as any set lessons can possibly be. Whatever be- 

 comes suggestive to the mind is of educational value. 

 That Museums have from their very nature the very es- 

 sence of this suggestiveness is patent. It may be true 



that of themselves alone they are powerless to educate, 

 but they can be instrumental and useful in aiding the 

 educated to excite a desire for knowledge in the ignorant. 

 The working man or agricultural laborer who spends his 

 holiday in a walk through any well-arranged Museum 

 cannot fail to come away with a deeply-rooted and re- 

 verential sense of the extent of knowledge possessed by 

 his fellow men. It is not the objects themselves that he 

 sees there, and wonders at, that cause this impression, so 

 much as the order and evident science which he cannot 

 but recognize in the manner in which they are grouped 

 and arranged. He learns that there is a meaning and 

 value in every object, however insignificant, and that there 

 is a way of looking at things common and rare, distinct 

 from.tlie regarding them as useless, useful, or merely cu- 

 rious. These three last terms would be found to be the 

 very common classification of all objects in a Museum by 

 the uninformed and uninitiated. 



After a holiday sj)ent in a Museum the working man 

 goes home and cons over what he has seen at his leisure, 

 and very probably on the next summer holidaj', or a Sun- 

 day afternoon's walk with his wife and little ones, he dis- 

 covers that he has acquired a new interest in the common 

 things he sees around him. ■ He begins to discover that 

 the stones, the flowers, the creatures of all kinds that 

 throng around him are not, after all, so very commonplace 

 as he had previously thought them. He looks at them 

 with a j)leasure not before experienced, and talks of them 

 to his children with sundry references to things like 

 them which he saw in the Museum. He has gained a 

 new sense, a craving for natural knowledge, and such a 

 craving may, possibly, in. course of time, quench another 

 and lower craving which may at one time have held him 

 in bondage — that for intoxicants or vicious excitement of 

 one description or another. 



The craving for intoxicants or excitement is often as 

 much a result as a cause. The toilers have few things 

 to occupy their mind, and frequently in their home 

 surroundings much cheerlessness and discomfort. Life 

 is for very many a hard daily grind for mere 

 existence, with little or no relief from the daily round 

 of the struggle to make ends meet. These, and other 

 conditions under which so many live, cannot fail to 

 produce tastes and likings which are not qualified to 

 tend to the ujjlifting of the mind and the desires by 

 which their life is governed. 



It is only those who come closel}^ in contact with the 

 more intelligent of the working classes, who know the 

 nobility of character and the earnest reaching out to- 

 wards higher things to be found among them, who"~can 

 be familiar with the intense longing to have within 

 their reach institutions such as Museums, Art Galleries, 

 and Free Libraries, to which they can have easy access. 

 That such as these use the institutions which already 

 exist is most amply and conclusively p)roved by the ocular 

 demonstration of those who have visited the Museums in 

 any of the large towns of the country. 



The nation should never forget that some of its great- 

 est benefactors have belonged to this class of intelligent 

 working men. James Watt, the engineer, Hugh Miller, 

 the stonemason geologist, Stephenson, the collier-railway 

 projector, Arkwright, the weaver-inventor, and scores of 

 others who could be named. Where, indeed, should we 

 have stood as a nation had it not been for the sturdy 

 common sense of the intelligent and thrifty working 

 classes ? 



Until very recently the great defect of our system of edu- 

 cation has been the neglect of educating the observing 

 powers — a very distinct matter, be it noted, from scien- 

 tific or industrial instruction. The confounding of the 

 two is evident in many books which have from time to 



