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64 NOTES. 
The vessel sailed December fourth, and will touch first at St. 
Thomas Island. The steamer burns less than three tons of coal 
a day, and can thus run eight thousand miles on one hundred and 
fifty tons of coal, a remarkable saving of fuel. Professor Agassiz 
has taken out abundant stores for preserving specimens, and deep — 
sea nets and hooks specially adapted for catching fish at great — 
_depths. We also publish a letter to Professor Pierce, the Superin- 
tendent of the Coast Survey, in regard to the aims of the dredg- 
ing party from advanced proofs received from Professor Pierce; and 
published as a Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology. 
We noticed in the last number of the Naruraxist the instrue- 
tion in science afforded to the teachers of Boston at the Hallof — 
the Natural History Society, the means having been furnished by — 
Mr. John Cummings ; we should not forget the other efforts made 
to instruct the public and popularize science, under the auspices 
of the same vigorous institution, the means of which have been — 
and are this year to be furnished by Mr. John A. Lowell, as trus- 4 
tee of the Lowell Institute Fund. The first courses were givet L 
for a nominal price of admission in the lecture-room of the Soci- 
ety’s Museum, last year. The following is the programme of the 
lectures for this season : ie 
“ First course, beginning October 23, twelve lectures on Pop- a 
ular Geology by W. T. Brigham, A.M. Subjects —‘ Water as 3 
xeological Agent; Chemical and Physical Properties of Water; a 
Dew and Rains ; Springs ; Rivers ; Waterfalls ; Bogs and Ma rshes + e 
Lacustine and Oceanic Deposits ; "The Ocean ; Cave erns ; Snow a 
Ice; Glaciers; Deluges. a 
Second Course, beginning December 4, six lectures by B. a 
Jeffries, M.D. Subject—‘ Comparative Anatomy of the Eye, 
ision.’ a 
Third Course, beginning December 26, ten lectures by Professor ; 
å. L. Go oodale, of Bowdoin College. Subj ect — ‘ Physiologica 
Botany, study o some of the relations of Plants to Heat, " 
Light, Blectricity e Chemistry.’ mas 
Fourth Course, beginning January 29, six lectures by be i 
Dwight, Jr. . M.D., ‘Subject — ‘ Preservation of Life among t 
Vertebrates.’ F at- : 
Fifth Course, ri iat February 19, six lectures by W- G. refer- 
low, M. D. Subject—‘Cryptogamic Botany, with special 
eyce to the Alge.’ b ieot 
Sixth Course, beginning March 11, by F. G. Sanborn, Sub) ; 
—‘ Talks about Insects.’’ 
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