278 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 
The Museum has been used this year on other than public days 
by 298 pupils and teachers, representing 10 schools, and we have 
also as in the past allowed scientific men, artists, and teachers free 
admission and materially assisted them whenever they had any 
just claims to such aid. 
Teaching in the Museum. 
In addition to what has been written, it is essential to notice the 
work done in the past official year. 
A course on the “ Marine life of the New England coast ” w r as 
begun by Mr. A. W. Grabau, April 17, 1897. This was subse¬ 
quently transferred to the Teachers’ School of Science and will be 
fully noticed under the proper heading. 
The same gentleman, our official guide and lecturer, has also 
given a course of eight lectures on “ The surface of the earth, its 
rocks, soil, and scenery.” This course begun in April, 1897, con¬ 
tinued through the month of May. The object of this series 
was to give the audience a comprehensive view of the action of 
cold and heat, of winds and waves, rains and rivers, and of the 
chemical effect of the atmosphere in the production of the natural 
features of the surface. 
Special attention was given to the scenery of New England, and 
vdienever practicable excursions were made to localities which 
could be used as illustrations. 
One result of a similar course given in 1896, which has not been 
heretofore reported upon, was the formation during the summer of 
the same year of a class of thirty persons, summer residents of 
Kennebunkport, Maine; this class was under instruction by Mr. 
Grabau the greater part of each day for two weeks. The awaken¬ 
ing of interest in local scenery has also led to his giving a lecture 
this past year in Belmont and two in Arlington, and he has thus 
been instrumental in a movement intended to preserve a valuable 
geologic monument, the local frontal boulder moraine on Arlington 
Heights. This is the only good and accessible example of such 
moraines near Boston, and its great importance to science need not 
be dwelt upon. In consequence of his work in this direction, Mr. 
Grabau was also invited to give a course of ten lectures on physical 
geography before the teachers of Medford, during the past winter. 
The course, “ Elementary principles of organic evolution,” deliv- 
