feet from the light of the sun. The boys wished to make a little diversion and so blew out the candles and then began to inquire for matches. It was pitch dark and the girls, fearing that the boys were not fooling this time, became quite frightened. After the boys had gained sufficient enjoyment from their prank, they lighted the candles again. We then made our way back to the mouth of the cave. We picked off some of the stalactites for souvenirs. They looked like water-colored, almost transparent hard stones.

VII. MY VACATION.

1. For many weeks I had been anxiously watching the approach of our recent mid-semester vacation and all the time busily engaged in planning how I should spend it. Of course many pleasant ways presented themselves and the difficulty was experienced in determining which one, or ones, should be adopted. The only unpleasant part in the anticipation, and I might add in the realization, of the vacation was the impossibility of being able to spend it at home. This feeling was of course heightened upon seeing numberless students starting for home with happy faces, conscious of a warm welcome and a happy week.

2. However, the homesick feeling, which for a time possessed me, was soon conquered and I set about making arrangements for the carrying out of my own little scheme which was, indeed, not a poor substitute for going home. Nothing could have come any nearer to that than was the pleasure of spending the week with a dear aunt and cousins in Waterford. True, it was not far enough away to be much of a change in either climate or scenery, but nevertheless it was a complete rest.

3. I had often wanted to ride down to Waterford on my wheel so made up my mind that I would go that way. I persuaded a friend to accompany me and we started from Milton one afternoon about two o'clock, reaching Waterford two hours later. The roads were in excellent condition and the wind was in our favor so we had no difficulty in riding.

4. The week was quietly spent in visiting and driving through the surrounding country, interspersed with a little study. All of

this was very enjoyable and I came back to my work ready to take it up again with renewed interest.

VIII. MY FIRST NEAR VIEW OF AN ANGLEWORM.

Of all the number of times that I have tormented angleworms with fishhooks, it never crossed my mind that the angleworm was very fine in its structure. It seems now doubly strange to me that I never wondered over the inside of a worm, for I never see a frog, fish, bird, rat, or insect without thinking of their make-up. Perhaps it was the thought of future fish or the excitement of the fishing that made me disregard the worm's insides, yet nevertheless, I did do that very thing till Professor Lamson handed me a pale pickled worm to cut up and draw pictures of. I did not exactly know how to begin, so I got a book down from the shelves which told all about the worm, much more, in fact, than I was able to discover at once. After much reflection I decided upon the back of the worm. With that, I bound the worm down in his natural position and made a long cut down the back. It was an awakening to see the beautiful arrangement of the inside. There was a tube in the worm which was supported at short intervals by partitions. The structure reminded me of the hub of a wheel, held in place by a solid sheet of wood instead of spokes. Here and there I could see or thought I could see a blood vessel or cord of some kind. The blood seemed to be white and there was no backbone, yet none of these things seemed so strange to me as the fact that I had never before thought of the worm in any deeper way than bait.

IX. PLACER COUNTY.

1. Placer County is located in the east-central part of the State of California. It comprises about 600 square miles of territory. The western boundary begins about 130 miles northwest of San Francisco and extends to Lake Tahoe and the Nevada state line on the east. The width of the county from east to west is 30 miles, and the average breadth is 20 miles.

2. The territory of the county is for the most part rolling hills, covered with pine, oak, and redwood trees. There is a great variety of soils, including clay, adobe, lime, and broken rock formation. The climate is, on the whole, mild and even. Snow rarely falls except in the few higher parts of the county. In the summer the air is warm and clear. The average temperature during the year is about 76° Fahrenheit. The average rainfall is about 33 inches yearly.

3. At first the main occupation of Placer County was, as its name suggests, placer mining. The emigrants who came to California in 1849 or '50 came, for the most part, through Placer County. Some stopped here, and it was in this county that the first important find of gold was made in California. Great ravines may be seen to-day in different localities of the county, evidences of the powerful water stream used to unearth the yellow metal. Old ruined foundations mark the place where twenty or thirty years ago two or three thousand men were living, busily engaged in mining.

4. Placer mining is practically not indulged in at all at the present time, being, as it were, a sort of prehistoric age in the history of Placer County. Nor is any mining carried on to any great extent at the present day. It is true that daily some men can be seen by the side of the streams with their shovels and rockers, working from morning till night, for which they receive subsistence and hopes of a big find.

5. Placer County has many advantages for fruit-raising, and this industry seems to have grown to be the most important one of the county. The soil and climate are favorable for the orange, lemon, cherry, peach, apple, pear, prune, plum, olive, walnut, etc., etc. Besides the soil being favorable the fruit growers of the county have a much greater advantage, and that is, they are conveniently situated on an eastern railroad. They are so situated that their fruits are able to be handled by Eastern markets almost a day ahead of the fruits of any other section of California. This is a great advantage, both on account of the perishability of the article and also it enables the fruit to receive all the advantages which are offered to that which first appears in the market.

6. The fruits most favored by the growers are the orange,

peach, and olive. Great fortunes were made by orange growers in Southern California by their fruit being introduced into the East. It became widely ard favorably known and grew to have a large and steady demand. This caused the growers of Placer County to try to grow the orange, and so great was their success in producing oranges of as large a size and fine a flavor as those of their southern rivals, that large tracts were set out in orange trees.

7. The peach is the most popular fruit raised. A peach orchard is comparatively inexpensive to start, and also the time between the start and the bearing point is short, being about two years. The peaches of the county have already made a name for themselves in the East for their size and flavor.

8. Olive raising is a very paying business, but is entered into only by those who have a large capital outlay, for it takes about six years before the trees bear. The territory devoted to olives is mostly side-hills where it is too steep or too rocky for other trees.

9. The other kinds of fruit are raised to a considerable extent both for the county's use and also for exportation. The exportation is handled by large and reliable shipping firms who either buy the fruit upon the spot or ship it to its destination upon the owner's risk, the shipping company acting as commission agent.

10. Besides fruit-raising the county has a large pottery factory in its southeastern part, near the town of Lincoln. The clay is taken out of a hill near by and the fuel brought from the surrounding territory. The product is shipped to San Francisco. The factory represents quite an output of capital and is run the year round. M. and Co. of San Francisco are the owners.

11. Although the hills are covered with trees, the lumber business is engaged in only to a small extent. It takes a great deal of wood to supply the pottery factory, and some of the towns have lumber yards and small mills. As a general rule not much lumber leaves the county.

12. The towns are far apart and most of them consist of only a hotel, saloon, grocery, blacksmith, and fruit shipper. Auburn, the county seat, is a beautiful town situated about 33 miles from Sacramento. It is situated on the Ogden and the East Railroad. The town has about two thousand inhabitants, and its buildings

include many beautiful residences. It is built upon a hill and commands a beautiful view of the streams, orchards, and forests which surround it. The town has two very creditable hotels which are mostly supported by the invalid visitors. These visitors are attracted to the place on account of its even climate and healthful air.

13. Another town worthy of note is New Castle, which does an enormous business although it consists of a hotel, two saloons, two blacksmiths, two grocers, one lumber yard, one drug store, one coroner, one church, and four fruit packing houses. During the fruit season, from May to September, three cars of fruit are shipped daily for the East. The average for the year is two carloads of fruit a day.

14. The county is thinly populated. The roads are the ordinary dirt roads, dusty in summer and muddy, even boggy in some places, in winter. The county is well supplied as regards the number of roads. Most of the county is under irrigation, and irrigation ditches are well distributed over the territory. The water for irrigation is obtained from the head waters of the streams. Private companies own and operate the irrigating ditches, from which water is drawn by the orchardists for a fixed compensation. The financial condition of Placer County is sound. Thus Placer County stands to-day as an example of a young, energetic, and rising county, which has forsaken the speculative business of mining and settled down to the old, standard occupation of agriculture.

The "lab" is a long room with windows arranged closely together along one side and at the two ends. A great many tables are placed crosswise and give it the appearance of a large dining-room. The seats for the students are all around these tables and each worker has his private drawer. The sink is at one end of the room and the material to work with is conveniently placed at the two extreme ends.

Students are divided into two kinds, the workers and the nonworkers, "those who look in the microscope and those who look