XIII 

 READING THE BOOK OF NATURE 



IN studying Nature, the important thing is not 

 so much what we see as how we interpret what 

 we see. Do we get at the true meaning of the facts ? 

 Do we draw the right inference ? The fossils in the 

 rocks were long observed before men drew the right 

 inference from them. So with a hundred other 

 things in nature and life. 



During May and a part of June of 1903, a drouth 

 of unusual severity prevailed throughout the land. 

 The pools and marshes nearly all dried up. Late 

 in June the rains came again and filled them up. 

 Then an unusual thing happened: suddenly, for 

 two or three days and nights, the marshes about me 

 were again vocal with the many voices of the hyla, 

 the "peepers" of early spring. That is the fact. 

 Now, what is the interpretation ? With me the peep- 

 ers become silent in early May, and, I suppose, leave 

 the marshes for their Ufe in the woods. Did the 

 drouth destroy all their eggs and young, and did 

 they know this and so come back to try again? 

 How else shall one explain their second appearance 

 in the marshes ? But how did they know of the de- 



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