Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 67.djvu/93

Rh Later in the day we take in a quiz given by an instructor to his class in bacteriology. After supper, which is much like dinner, an evening lecture is given by another instructor, who tells us about Agassiz and his work, while we sit about the fireplace, with its crackling fire of driftwood, for the evening is cool, although it is August. A little later I am shown to my berth in the men's compartment on the second floor. The carpenter had built plain wooden berths in tiers of two each, and these have had boughs of cedar laid in them on which I roll in my blankets and sleep soundly. A similar compartment is provided for the women of the party, and here our chaperon gathers her charge. The sounds of the retreating tide as the waves lap upon the rocks lull our senses, and we sink into such a sleep as only those can enjoy who live in camp.

The roar of the breakers wakes us early, and I go down to the beach and walk along its rocky ledges for half a mile and watch the swaying kelps (Nereocystis) and the nodding sea palms (Postelsia) as the waves dash over them. A messenger comes to call me to the breakfast I am forgetting, and we hurry back by a short cut over the neck of a promontory, crossing a canyon on the trunk of a fallen spruce five or six feet in diameter. On its upper side it carries several large trees, and yet its wood is as sound as when it fell a century or so ago. After breakfast the sub-director instructs her class in seaweeds for a couple of hours, when the director takes them and goes