1877.] 



SENATE — No. 5. 



13 



Davis, I have been able to secure field teaching on at least 

 two days in each week during the season when out-door 

 work is practicable. This part of the instruction is so con- 

 ducted as to require each student to acquaint himself by 

 practical work with the elements of the method of geological 

 determinations. A large part of each class attains consider- 

 able skill in making sections and in determining the nature 

 and extension of formations. 



During the last session of the summer school, the work was 

 so directed as to secure some important contributions to our 

 knowledge of the structure of the Appalachian system of 

 mountains. A carefully measured section was made from the 

 Cumberland Mountain across the valley of East Tennessee 

 to the Black Mountain of North Carolina. This section is, 

 for its length, the most carefully made of any known to me 

 in this country, and when published will throw a good deal 

 of light on some of the most important problems of mountain 

 structure. 



Although some advance has been made in the preparation 

 of materials for teaching, the most important gaps in our 

 collection of such objects remain unfilled. It has been found 

 very difiicult to arrange and keep in order a sufficient cabinet 

 of palseontological specimens, to give the student a good 

 basis for laboratory work. To this task the whole time of 

 one competent assistant could well be given. Considerable 

 additions have been made to the collection of maps and 

 models for geological illustration, and a collection of several 

 hundred specimens illustrating the principal problems of 

 lithology has been made, freely accessible to students. A 

 collection of over one hundred volumes of general works on 

 geology and zoology has been placed in the laboratory for 

 free use. Most of these books have been deposited by the 

 Harvard Natural History Society, with the condition that they 

 remain freely accessible to students. 



A good deal of my time, as well as that of my assistant, 

 Mr. Davis, has been given to the fostering of the Harvard 

 Natural History Society, an association which now serves as 

 a centre of scientific inquiry among the advanced students of 

 the University. This society has become a valuable helper 

 of the natural history instruction given in the Museum. Its 



