668, Brooklyn (I), has been troubled by two unruly members, and asks what to do about it. Probably most Chapters have had more or less trouble at times from this source. It is generally the result of thoughtlessness rather than of perversity, and if the troubled will have large patience, and if the troublers will stop to think what serious injury they are doing to their Chapter by their inattention, most of the annoyance will cease. In case there should be any member who refuses to conform to the rules, after kind expostulation, his name may be sent to us by the Secretary of the Chapter, or he may be expelled at once. Four earnest members make a better Chapter than six, two of whom are not interested workers. This is a painful subject, and we trust we shall not be compelled to revert to it.

765, Detroit (G). The principal of our school is coming to our next meeting, and we hope to get the teachers interested.--William Warner Bishop, Sec.

(The shoe is usually supposed to be on the other foot!)

tion.

618, Central Village, Conn. We cleared $30 from a loan exhibiWith the money we bought seven or eight books, a polyopticon, and a small cabinet. While taking a tramp, we discovered silver indications and garnets.-J. E. Shelden, Sec.

336, Auburn, N. Y. (B), has made a scrap-box. "We made a box so large that twelve cigar boxes fitted in it nicely. We then printed labels, and set apart each box for a different study. We have a room of our own, to which mail may be addressed13 Aurelius Avenue."-Elmer Kelland, Sec.

670, Wrights Grove, Ill. (B). Last December the drawingteacher of the Lakeview High School joined us, and since then we have progressed splendidly. For each meeting one writes a sketch of the life of some eminent scientist, while the rest gather notes on his life, and other scientific subjects.-Myron H. M. Hunt, Sec.

It

355, N. Adams (A). We are feeling very much encouraged. Since our last report we have obtained twenty-four new members. Two have left, so we are thirty-one. Encouraging, is it not? takes too much time for each member to answer questions, as we have been doing this winter, so we have gone back to the old way of having a few questions and a few essays. We expect to do good work this spring Four of the new members are teachers. The rest are nearly all from the first year class in the High School, so that we can have a large society when our class is graduated next June.-M. Louise Radlo, Sec.

453, Oswego, N. Y. (A). Our Chapter has increased from five members to twelve. Our meetings are very interesting. Our most interesting question was "To which kingdom does chalk belong?' No. 1 said that chalk, being composed of the shells of animals, belonged to the animal kingdom. No. 2 said that chalk was composed of the shells, and not of the animals, and shells being composed of lime made it belong to the mineral kingdom. No. I then said that as shells were composed of lime, and lime was formed of the decomposed parts of animals, shells and chalk belonged to the animal kingdom. Well, sir, here I saw they were drifting too deeply into science, and I advised that the question be carried over, which it was, and if you can help us out of it you will do us a great favor, as we have never been able to decide the matter satisfactorily. At one of our meetings a lilac twig was shown covered with pyramidal eggs. These grew into little gray caterpillars, of course very minute, as the shape of the egg could only be seen by the use of the microScope.-W. A. Burr, Sec.

[It is customary in the game of twenty questions to regard as belonging to the animal kingdom all animal products, such as silk, ivory, bone, coral, etc., so long as they retain their natural structure. If bones are burned, the bone-ash is considered mineral. The disintegration of the animal structure of limestone is so. complete that we unhesitatingly place it among minerals. In coral, the structure is so well preserved that we should call it ani

mal.

Chalk is between the two, but had better be classed as mineral. The exact truth is, that it is a mineral substance that has been shaped by animal life, and afterward partially disintegrated. The same principle will help you decide whether coal is vegetable or mineral. What shall we say of honey?]

387, Baltimore (E). We feel quite encouraged by the result of the past month. The members take more interest and enter on their various duties with more zeal than ever.- Edward McDowell, Sec.

FROM JAPAN.

We must make a little parenthesis in our regular reports for this interesting letter from Kioto, Japan:

DEAR MR. BALLARD: My object in writing you, is to try to form a Chapter of the A. A. among the dozen or fifteen boys and girls of the American professors in the Anglo-Japanese school in this city. There is nothing I so much regret in my early education as I do the lack of any incentive or training in using my eyes; and feeling this lack, I mean to try to save as many boys and girls as I can from a similar failure. Now, will it be possible for us to be recog nized? I will add that the ST. NICHOLAS is taken by several of the families here. With the best of wishes.-C. M. Cady.

549, Linlithgow, Scotland. This Chapter since its formation has done good work. Our papers and the reports of our excursions are bound up in a volume. Correspondence is invited.- Wm. Wardrop, Gowan Cottage.

713, Old Chatham, N. Y. We now number 25, and are taking a course in Botany. Will some one name this bird?-- Length, 7 inches; wing, 4 inches; bill, 1⁄2 inch; tarsus, 1 inch; back and upper part of head, ashy blue, flecked with dirty brown and gray; wing feathers, grayish black, with upper edge reddish brown; under part of tail, ashy gray; sides of neck and breast, white, flecked with brown; bill sharp and conical.-R. W. Morey, Sec.

NOT FOR CHILDREN ONLY.

[To illustrate the interest taken in our Society by "children of a larger growth," and one of the fields of usefulness opening to us, we give entire the following letter, one of many of similar tenor, withholding only the writer's name.]

DEAR SIR: I am glad to be able to tell you that I have, with several others, met this afternoon to form a Chapter of the Agassiz Association. And I hope it will succeed. I have for ten years had a kindergarten and school here, and some of my earliest pupils are now big boys and girls, 12 and 14 years old, and I do not wish their love and interest to drift away from me as they pass on to other schools. I have been wondering how I could hold them together, and keep up intercourse with them that would have an interest beyond the mere feeling of old affection and childish association. And when I saw your hand-book advertised in the Nation, a couple of months ago, I sent to you for a copy, and saw it was the very thing I needed, if I could carry it out. At first I shrank from the amount of work it implied (for am not very strong, and have a very heavy load on my shoulders already, my mother being a great invalid, and thereby giving me all the housekeeping cares, besides carrying on my school). I showed the book to one of my boys, and he seized upon the idea with such delight I could not find it in my heart to hesitate any longer. So we have been talking about it to others, and interesting them, and finally this afternoon some of us met and formed our Chapter. I had the nucleus of a collection of curiosities in a box of "rubbish" which had been given to me at various times, and we have already had some very nice and attractive curiosities given to I have always been particularly fond of botany, and every spring I have the children who are old enough read Gray's How Plants Grow, and How Plants Behave. for reading books, and we analyze flowers afterward. And through the summer botany is my chief delight. I attend most of the free Saturday exhibitions of the Horticultural Society in Boston, and last season I studied ferns, and collected a great many of the common northern varieties. I think, from my own strong leaning in that direction, and the equally strong interest of another member who intends to join us, that botany will be one of our leading interests. In addition to the boys and girls from 8 to 14 years old, we will have several grown-up members, who have expressed a strong interest and a desire to join us. We do not wish to form a large Chapter at first, and yet it is hard to limit it. We would rather admit younger members very gradually, and as they are fitted to do real work. I can do a great deal of preparatory work in school,-- object lessons, etc., with the younger ones,-- and the kindergarten is an excellent training for such an after interest. Very sincerely yours,

us.

272, Westtown, N. Y. Our collection of insects at the annual county fair.-W. Evans, Sec.

729, Boston (F); 333, San Francisco (F); 564, Santa Rosa (A); 684, Gilbertsville, N. Y.; 603, Chicago (V); 711, Glens Falls, N. Y.; 730, Council Bluffs, Iowa; 753, Springfield, Mass. ; 439, Wilmington, Del.; 354, Litchfield, Conn.; 762, Baltimore (J); 21, Nashua (A); 203, Framingham, Mass.; 610, Racine, Wis. (B); 483, Albuquerque, N. M.; 527, San Francisco (G); 491, Rochester, Ind.; 738, Mt. Gilead, Ohio; 575, Spencer, Mass.; and 680, Peoria, Illinois (E), all send excellent and encouraging reports of progress. They are all, however, so nearly alike that it would be monotonous to reproduce them side by side. one which in the main represents them all.

Here is

"Progressing splendidly. Have added two new members. Have bought a microscope, and added several new books to our library. We enjoy the reports in the ST. NICHOLAS very much. Enthusiasm increasing. Have procured a room in which to hold our meetings. We have a fair collection, and it is increasing."

[We hope this uniformity of successful endeavor and kindly feeling of interest will remain unbroken.]

EXCHANGES.

Zanguebar gum, for amber.-M. S. Howland, 904 King Street, Wilmington, Del.

Compact limestone, for other labeled minerals or birds' eggs. Correspondence desired.- Ward M. Sackett, Sec. Ch. 741, Meadville, Pa.

Dendrite, epidote, red and purple porphyry, also sea curiosities, i. e., sea-urchin, starfish, etc. Write first.-E. G. Harlow, 32% Neptune Street, Lynn, Mass.

Birds' eggs (side-hole), for same.-P. E. Kennedy, 125 Fourth Ave., Cleveland, Ohio.

Minerals, fossils, etc., for woods. Send list of woods, and stamp for samples of wood showing shape. I want specimens.-L. L. Lewis, Copenhagen, N. Y.

The address of Ch. 136 is now W. H. Righter, Columbia, Pa. Minerals, mosses, lichens, and cones, for eggs, birds, minerals, and books on taxidermy and geology.-- Ray S. Baker, St. Croix Falls, Wis.

Book on silk-worm raising, for two eggs of scarlet first.-R. S. Cross, Purvis, Miss.

tanager.

No. of Members. Address.

786 Tompkinsville, S. I., N. Y. (A). 4..Graham Shaw. 787 Elizabeth, N. J. (A) . 4..Roy Hopping.

6.. Ray S. Baker. 9.. Fred L. Ball.

Address all communications for this department to the President of the A. A., MR. HARLAN H. BALLARD,

Principal of Lenox Academy, Lenox, Mass.

PI.

IN what poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes do the lines occur from which the following pi is made?

Hewn weak het litsove, trinew side;

Hewn stropu het mel-sudb, grispn si erna;

Hewn sillca sobmsol, rummes scrie,
"Dub, leltti ersso! ripsgn si heer!"

DIAMOND.

GRACE J.

3. Cut off.

4. An 7. In porringer. EDITH LEAVITT.

FROM 1 to 5, a father; from 2 to 6, precise; from 3 to 7, to merit; from 4 to 8, advanced; from 5 to 9, a confederate; from 6 to 10, the Christian name of Charles Lamb's sister; from 7 to 11, an abode; from 8 to 12, always; from 1 to 9, popishly; from 2 to 10, original; from 3 to 11, zealous; from 4 to 12, eternally.

The letters represented by the figures from 5 to 8 may be transposed to form words meaning an appellation, a word signifying "so be it," ignoble, and part of a horse.

NUMERICAL ENIGMA.

DYCIE.

I AM composed of seventy-four letters, and am part of a poem by "H. H."

My 29-9-41-67-35 is an animal of the deer kind. My 4-66-33-48 is to withhold assent to. My 38-19-30-40-3 is to annoy. My 7-15 -56-22-42 is important. My 34-11-5-23 is part of the feet of certain animals. My 21-52-8-57 is the flesh of certain animals. My 72-6-12-24-62-73-58-49 is a fabulous monster; my 59-37-51-74-2560-65-27-39 is what he dwelt in. My 55-50-32-1-63 is part of a rake. My 43-54-45-28 was the wife of Jupiter. My 61-71-16-1836 is to bend. My 14-69-26-31 is a period of time. My 20-46–53 is a large body of water. My 10-44-47-13 is smoke. My 68-70-6417-2 is to balance. "CORNELIA BLIMBER.'

FROM 1 to 3, a portion of even ground; from 2 to 3, an uproar; from 1 to 2, a fruit; from 4 to 5, to dissolve; from 6 to 5, a ditch; from 4 to 6, to cripple. "CEDIPUS."