12 
PROCEEDINGS : BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 
natural scenery of that country. Among the prominent points 
•visited were the coal mines at the Joggins, the iron mines at 
Londonderry, the gold mines at Montagu, the gypsum quarries at 
Windsor, the famous mineral localities at Partridge Island, Wason’s 
Bluff, and Cape Blomidon, and the beautiful scenery around Hali¬ 
fax and the Annapolis Valley. Many courtesies were shown the 
party by the managers of the different mines and by others. The 
members of the class were charged with the teacher’s expenses 
and a fee of five dollars each. A similar excursion into western 
Massachusetts and westwards as far as Niagara Falls has been 
planned for the coming summer. 
Lowell Free Courses. 
The regular spring course of ten field lessons in geology car¬ 
ried on by Professor Barton began April 23, 1898, and ended 
June 25. Bad weather interfered with the work and reduced the 
attendance to less than it ever has been before. While in 1897 for 
the same course it was 34, this spring the average was only 10. 
The Curator regrets to announce that the Trustee of the Lowell 
O 
institute having decided to discontinue the out-of-door work of the 
Lowell free course in the Teachers’ school of science, will contrib¬ 
ute in future only to the support of lectures during the winter. To 
this determination he has been led by considerations of general 
policy which in no way reflect upon the value or success of the 
field courses. 
It would be difficult to overstate the obligations of this Society 
to Mr. Augustus Lowell. This gentleman as Trustee of the Lowell 
institute has carried on for many years past most of the les¬ 
sons given by the Teachers’ school of science and preceding this 
time gave freely towards the maintenance of courses of free jmblic 
evening lectures. He assumed the support of the field lessons in 
geology in 1890, and they have since then been a part of the work 
of the Lowell institute and have thus been able to build up results 
that ought to secure for them some permanent foundation. 
A new four years’ course (120 hours) in geology under Profes¬ 
sor Barton began during the past winter. This course like that 
which preceded it will embrace at least fifteen lessons of two hours 
each, thirty hours for each year of the course. The subjects are to 
