HYATT : REPORT OF THE CURATOR. . 
11 
excursion to Naliant and a number of informal trips, and will be 
continued for the present. 
Professor Barton had arranged to give ten field lessons in geology 
to the pupils of the Boston normal school but the exceptionally 
bad weather in the autumn of 1898 reduced these to four. This 
class consisted of twenty young ladies and was conducted without 
remuneration. The indifference of the authorities to the continu¬ 
ance of this course, in spite of the exertions of the teacher in charge 
and of the head of the school to obtain an appropriation for this 
purpose, exhibits quite plainly the estimate in which science is held 
by the government of the public schools. Professor Barton states 
that these pupils, all of whom are to be teachers in the public 
schools, come to him exceedingly well prepared for the work by 
their previous training and are very enthusiastic and successful, but 
as he has now been carrying these courses for several years without 
remuneration he will be unable to continue after the series of 
lessons now being given is finished. The spring course has begun 
and will be reported upon next year. 
The field lessons in geology in the autumn of 1898, although no 
longer supported by the Lowell fund, were conducted voluntarily 
by Professor Barton in order that the teachers who had counted 
upon having them should not be disappointed and in the hope that 
means would be found to keep this important part of the work of 
the school from being given up altogether. Luckily our appeals 
for help were in this case answered by a generous friend of the 
Society, who has promised a sum sufficient to carry on these courses 
through the spring and autumn of 1899. 
The autumn course began September 17, 1898, and ended 
November 19, ten lessons having been given. The whole number 
of applications was 110 and the average attendance notwithstand¬ 
ing the bad weather was twenty-seven. There was but one fair day 
out of the ten Saturdays upon which lessons were held. Most of 
these lessons occupy one half day but some, like those to Marble¬ 
head, Rockport, Haverhill, Fitchburg, require a whole day and 
those to Hoosac Tunnel and Mt. Holyoke took three days each. 
The spring course of 1899 has begun and will be noticed fully in 
the next annual report. 
A party of seventeen under Professor Barton’s direction visited 
Nova Scotia during the summer of 1898, spending about three 
weeks in making a study of the geology, mineralogy, mining, and 
