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colony of Lapps. Experience is rapidly demonstrating that the only possible efficient transportation service in Alaska must be through the use of reindeer, and this necessitates the trained and expert drivers of reindeer found among the civilized Lapps and Finns. The 68 men that were brought over by this expedition are all picked men and expect to be permanent settlers of Alaska. They hope ultimately to have herds of their own and raise and train reindeer to sell to the transportation companies. Their success will naturally attract others of their people and render permanent the establishment of the reindeer industry in Alaska. In this connection I make acknowledgments of the assistance rendered in the movement of the Lapps and reindeer by Brig. Gen. Henry C. Merriam. U. S. A., commanding the Department of the Columbia; also to Capt. W. W. Robinson, jr., U. S. A., at Seattle; Capt. B. Eldridge, U. S. A.; Capt. D. L. Brainard, U. S. A.; Capt. William R. Abercrombie, U. S. A.; Lieut. W. S. Graves, U. S. A., and especially to my associate, Capt. D. B. Devore, U. S. A., who shared with me in the perplexities, difficulties, and hardships encountered in Lapland.

TRIP TO SIBERIA.

Having landed the Laplanders with their rations on the beach a mile and a half below the village of Unalaklik, the steamer Del Norte raised anchor and sailed for Golovin Bay on the evening of August 1. Entering the bay on the morning of the 2d about 8 o'clock, the steamer went aground. Here we remained for twentyfour hours. Taking a small boat, a visit was made to the village and Swede mission station, and arrangements were made for landing the supplies for the mission and reindeer stations, which was successfully accomplished that afternoon.

Getting afloat about midday on the 3d, a start was made for the Teller reindeer station, which was reached on the morning of the 4th. The station was visited and inspected and we pushed on to St. Lawrence Bay, Siberia, which was reached on the morning of the 6th. Going ashore, I found that the station had been abandoned by the party in charge on the 3d of July. A conference was had with the natives and notice was sent to the owners of reindeer herds to drive their animals to the coast convenient for the ship. Then taking up anchor, we sailed out of St. Lawrence Bay around to the south side of South Cape. On Sunday, the floating ice coming in so thickly as to endanger the safety of the vessel, the captain shifted his anchorage inside of the bay. The following days were consumed in securing 100 reindeer, which had been previously purchased by the party in charge, and 61, which were purchased on the spot.

Having secured all the deer that was possible at the time and taken on board the furniture from the station and placed the houses in charge of one of the natives, the ship sailed for Cape Prince of Wales, reaching there on the night of the 10th of August. The surf being too rough for landing the deer, the vessel continued on her course into Port Clarence, where they were landed on the 11th at Teller reindeer station and placed in charge of Frederik Larsen, a Lapp herder, who was directed to drive them across the country and turn them over to Mr. W. T. Lopp, in charge of the American Missionary Association station at Cape Prince of Wales. These deer were for the purpose of returning in part those which had been previously borrowed from that station by the Government and sent overland to Point Barrow, to be slaughtered for food for the whalers that were imprisoned in the ice and out of provisions. The Rev. T. L. Brevig, who was in charge of the buildings, being desirous of spending the winter in the States, the custody of the buildings was given to Dr. Brandon, a physician and miner, who intended wintering at that place. Mr. Brevig and family coming on board of the steamer, we sailed on the night of the 12th for St. Lawrence Island, reaching there on the night of the 13th. The fog was so dense, however, that we were unable to find the village until the following morning.

On the 14th Mr. W. F. Doty, who had agreed to take for one year the school previously taught by Mr. V. C. Gambell (who was lost at sea while returning to his station in May), together with his annual supplies. was landed on the beach, and in the evening the steamer sailed for Unalaklik, which was reached on the 16th. Two days were spent in unloading supplies and arranging the affairs of the Eaton reindeer station. On the night of the 18th the Del Norte sailed for St. Michael, reaching there early in the morning of the 19th. On the 21st I was able to go on board the steamer Roanoke start for Seattle, reaching there August 30. Leaving next day on the railway, Washington was reached on the 6th of September, 1898, thus closing a travel of 31,801 miles since the 23d of December, 1897. Very respectfully, yours,

SHELDON JACKSON, United States General Agent of Education in Alaska.

The COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION.

CHAPTER XLII.

INSTITUTIONS FOR HIGHER EDUCATION.

GENERAL STATEMENT.

The year under consideration, it is generally conceded, has been a prosperous one for the universities and colleges of the country, although the latter part of the school year was attended with considerable excitement and a loss of students caused by the war with Spain. The reports of the presidents of some of the institutions show that quite a number of students left college before the close of the year to render service in their country's behalf. Notwithstanding the general prosperity of the higher institutions as a class, it is necessary to record the suspension of the following institutions for women: Synodical Female College, Florence, Ala.; Elizabeth Aull Female Seminary, Lexington, Mo.; Evelyn College, Princeton, N. J.; Mary Sharp College, Winchester, Tenn.; and Staunton Female Seminary, Staunton, Va. Pierre University, East Pierre, S. Dak., has been moved to Huron, S. Dak., and its name changed to Huron College. Three other institutions. formerly doing college work are now classed as secondary schools.

NEW HOME OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY.

One of the noteworthy events of the year was the removal of Columbia University from its former home in the heart of New York City to its new home. On the 4th of October, 1897, the university formally began its work of education in the new buildings which had been in course of preparation for it since the purchase of the site on Morningside Heights in March, 1892. In order to give some idea of the cost of the material equipment of a modern institution for higher education the following statement concerning the cost of the land, buildings, equipment, etc., of Columbia University on Morningside Heights is taken from the report of President Low, made to the trustees on October 3, 1898:

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Even with this large expenditure of funds the university still needs dormitories, a chapel, a building for the college, a dining hall, an academic theater, and a building that shall be the headquarters of the social life of the students.

COLLEGE DORMITORIES.

While the larger number of institutions for higher education provide homes for their students, there are still a few of the universities that have not yet met this need. In these cases the students are compelled to seek rooms among the private homes or boarding houses of the cities in which such institutions are located. The University of Pennsylvania is one of the institutions which has but recently provided these facilities. The dormitory system, opened in 1896 and costing nearly $100,000, provides accommodations for nearly 400 students, and in 1897-98 all of the rooms were occupied. Concerning the advantages of the dormitory system, the provost, in his last report, says:

The transformation which your board has made during the past four years has brought about an entirely new life, hitherto unknown at the university. For the first time there is a community of student life which has not become selfish or personal, and which, I believe, runs no risk of becoming either; indeed, that life is a robust one, and will more and more make itself felt. This identification of the student body with the University of Pennsylvania, of which they are more and more proud, is becoming contagious. It is observable in every throb of the great heart of the whole university. That it is due largely to the influence of Houston Hall, and to the establishment of the dormitories, with their individual "home" system and self-government, is evident to us all.

The provost pleads for the means of extending the dormitory system. Columbia University, on moving into its magnificent new home, still finds itself without the means of offering homes to its students. President Low in his last report says:

The time is at hand when the trustees must determine their policy in regard to dormitories upon the new site. The demand for them, as the sentiment reaches me, is almost universal, both among young and old. Some want them for the sake of what they call college life; others for the sake of securing that effect in education that is born of the community of scholars. *The wants of the student

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are few and simple. He is well content with a small room if it be clean. Neither does he need costly finish nor luxuriousness of furniture in any building which he is to occupy. What he does want is convenience to the university, a clean and well-kept room, plain but good food, and surroundings that lend themselves to study.

President Schurman, of Cornell University, emphasizes the need of dormitories by that institution. In his report for 1897-98 he says:

No provision is made by Cornell University for the social life of the men students. The women have a beautiful home in Sage College. But for the men there is nothing. In the absence of halls of residence for students Greek letter fraternities have sprung up; but, cordially as these are to be welcomed, they can not take the place of university halls, for they rest on an entirely different, and indeed antagonistic, principle. A residential hall is open to every student; a fraternity house is closed to all except the few who are invited to become members. The one is democratic, the other selective. Hence, if one looks deep enough, it will be apparent that the more fully developed the system of Greek letter fraternities at a university, the greater is the need of residential halls. And if, in addition to such halls, there were a dining hall in which the men from the fraternity houses and men from the public halls took their meals together, the arrangement would make for democracy and fraternity and tend to eliminate cliquishness and social sectarianism. If, furthermore, there were a club or common room contiguous to the dining hall, to which students might resort after meals, and in which they might associate during the intervals of relaxation, enjoying together the amenities of social intercourse, the plan would be a well-nigh ideal one. And how much education and culture-social, intellectual, moral, and political-the students would derive from one another, created, as it were, from the mere circumstance of their coming together! This inexhaustible potency is at present entirely lost at Cornell University, though it is of the highest value in the education of young

men.

The president states that while the university has many other needs, he desires at this time to accentuate the importance, for the spirit of the university as well as for the life and culture of its students, of a great system of halls of residence, with the conjoined features of a dining hall and clubhouse." The alumni have already taken steps to raise $150,000 for an alumni hall to be used as a clubhouse.

CONTINUOUS SESSIONS.

West Virginia University, at Morgantown, W. Va., has followed the example of the University of Chicago and has abolished the three months' vacation in summer. The scholastic year is divided into four quarters of twelve weeks each, with recesses of one week between quarters.

NEW COURSES OF STUDY.

The University of Chicago and the University of California have established colleges of commerce, whose organization and courses of study are described elsewhere in this report.

The Graduate School of Railway Mechanical Engineering was authorized by the board of trustees of Cornell University, in June, 1896, and was organized in February, 1898. The courses in this school will have special relation to the design, the construction, the operation, and the test trials of locomotives and other kinds of machinery employed in railroad operation.

The New York State College of Forestry, at Cornell University, established by an act of the legislature of the State of New York, approved March 26, 1898, was opened for instruction in September, 1898. The legislative act provides for the purchase and use of 30,000 acres of land in the Adirondack forests as a demonstration area, and that the College of Forestry "shall conduct upon said land such experiments in forestry as it may deem most advantageous to the interests of the State and the advancement of scientific forestry, and may plant, raise, cut, and sell timber at such times, of such species and quantities and in such manner, as it may deem best with a view to obtaining and imparting knowledge concerning the scientific management and use of forests, their regulation and administration, the production, harvesting, and reproduction of wood crops and earning a revenue therefrom." The college was organized by the appointment of Dr. B. E. Fernow, chief of the Division of Forestry of the United States Department of Agriculture, as director and professor of forestry, and of Filibert Roth, B. S., of the same division, as assistant professor of forestry and forest manager. There have been

arranged a full four-year course leading to a degree of Bachelor of the Science of Forestry, a one-year special course, and a one-term synoptical course. The fouryear course is planned to give a thorough knowledge of all branches of the profession and to prepare men to manage and administer forest estates for private owners, or for the State or National Government, and also to teach the profession in the colleges which are likely in the near future to establish chairs of forestry science and practice. This course comprises in its first two years the basal or preparatory studies of mathematics, natural science, engineering, political economy, etc., its last two years being devoted to the purely professional subjects. The oneyear special course is planned for farmers, lumbermen, and others not desiring a general scientific training, but wishing to acquire such technical and practical knowledge of forestry as will enable them to manage more intelligently and economically their own woodlands. Finally, the one-term synoptical course will meet the requirements of students of political economy and others wishing to make a brief survey of the subject of forestry as a matter of general education.1

The School of Library Science, which had been conducted at Armour Institute of Technology, Chicago, Ill., since September, 1893, was transferred to the University of Illinois in September, 1897, and offers a four years' course of study leading to the degree of Bachelor of Library Science. Two years of the course are devoted to general university studies, and the last two years to technical library work.

RATIO OF STUDENTS TO POPULATION, 1872-1898.

The following tabular statement, giving the number of students in higher education to each 1,000,000 persons in the United States from 1872 to 1898, shows a very substantial increase for each class of students represented. As would naturally be expected, by far the greatest increase is shown in the column devoted to graduate students, the ratio having increased from 5 students in 1872 to 74 in 1898. The first column of students includes all undergraduate, collegiate, and technical students in universities and colleges for men and for both sexes, in colleges for women, Division A, and in schools of technology:

Number of students in higher education to each 1,000,000 persons from 1872 to 1897–98 (based on the number of students in the colleges of the United States).

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