of a district to be superseded by new ones. Along the rest of the route the bed of the river is less steep and its banks exhibit less variation, but they still afford plenty of material for study. The railway viaduct at 14 and an aqueduct at 16 suggest at least a casual reference to the derivation of the terms. Before the pupils are asked to write a “composition” on the ramble, a revision lesson on the features noticed should be given, and the accuracy of the entries on the sketch-maps checked by comparison with an enlarged map drawn by the teacher, or with a large “parish plan” of the Ordnance Survey, on the scale of 25.3 inches to the mile. It will be well to devote two or more journeys to the study of the trees along the route. One journey should be taken in the spring, before the leaves are out, and another in the summer, when the foliage is well developed. It is far better to study three kinds of trees in some detail than to risk confusion at the beginning by attending to a dozen. In Healey Dell the commonest trees are beech, oak, and sycamore, and these serve admirably as an introduction to tree lore. If the first tree-journey be taken in the summer, the leaves of some three abundant species should be compared and contrasted, and each pupil should secure good specimens, to be drawn and preserved [Pg 397] afterwards. The presence of a little bud in the “axil” (the upper angle between leaf and twig) of most of the leaves should be pointed out by the teacher; and since the arrangement of the buds (and therefore of the subsequent branches of the twig) thus depends on the positions of the leaves, this last point is of considerable interest. In the sycamore, the leaves are in pairs at right angles to each other; in the beech and oak they are single and alternate, but much more crowded together in the oak than in the beech. The bark of the three trees is equally distinctive, and with the method of branching (obscured when the foliage is thick) serves to identify the trees from a distance in the winter. In winter and spring the interest of a tree is centred in its buds, and there are few things which more richly repay study. In spring, attention should also be given to the flowers—generally arranged in catkins—of common trees. Separate sketch-maps should be used as records of the positions of the more notable trees or plantations along the route. Any tendency to vandalism on the part of the pupils by tearing off branches should, of course, be sternly repressed; especially interesting twigs should, on occasion, be cut off by the teacher only, for later study.