These arrangements were no sooner consummated than tidings came from the Arctic coast of Alaska that eight whaling vessels, carrying crews aggregating about 400 men, had been unexpectedly caught in the ice and the men were in danger of starvation. Many plans were proposed for a relief expedition, but, as in the former case, it was found that no plan was practicable that was not based upon the use of the reindeer. Accordingly the Government, on the 16th of November, issued orders for the revenue cutter Bear to proceed north until stopped by ice, then to make a determined effort to send Lieut. D. H. Jarvis and two or three men over the ice to the mainland. Having effected a landing, the party are to proceed to Cape Prince of Wales, secure the services of W. T. Lopp, a Congregational missionary, borrow his reindeer herd and also the herd belonging to a native Eskimo by the name of Antisarlook, and with these two herds proceed overland 500 or 600 miles in December and January to Point Barrow, or until the whalers are found and relief afforded. As the season advanced the accounts of the shortage of food in the Yukon Valley became more and more alarming, and on the 18th of December Congress voted to be expended, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, the sum of $200,000, to be used for the taking of relief into the region of the Upper Yukon Valley. As the reindeer in the neighborhood of St. Michael can not be reached at this season of the year on account of ice, and fresh importations can not be made from Siberia on the same account, it is planned to send to Lapland, procure from 500 to 600 reindeer trained to harness and 50 or 60 experienced drivers, transport them across the Atlantic to New York, thence across the continent to Seattle, and from Seattle to Dyea, near the Chilkoot Pass in southeast Alaska. At this point arrangements will be made by means of these trained deer to carry provisions to the mining camps in the Upper Yukon Valley. Thus when an exigency arose in which hundreds of men were threatened with starvation it was found that the reindeer furnished the only reasonable plan for the relief of the miners. The reindeer are a necessity for the development of the new mines and the supply of sufficient food for the miners. The more rapidly domestic reindeer can be introduced into that country the more rapidly new sections can be visited and developed. In conclusion, I desire to acknowledge the many courtesies received from the honorable Secretary of the Treasury; Capt. C. F. Shoemaker, chief of RevenueCutter Service; Capt. Francis Tuttle, commanding cutter Bear; Capt. W. J. Herring, commanding the Corwin, together with officers and crews of both vessels; also the North American Commercial Company, their agents in Alaska, and Capt. J. C. Barr, commanding the river steamer J. J. Kelly, and Captain Kidtlson, commanding the steamer Portland. 1894 1895 1896. $540.58 683.80 1897 $6,000 $2,284. 15 82, 473. 41 $150.00 Total... 33,000 13,338.88 8,199. 644,206.58 3,189.21 300.00 654.06 132.60 2,831, 50 32, 852. 47 147.53 Value station property, barter goods, and supplies on hand June 30, 1897. Total cost of reindeer in Alaska to June 30, 1897.. Cost per head of 1,295 reindeer 6,817.49 26,034.98 d 20. 10 a Supplies at station consist of provisions for herders, material for herders' clothing, coal, lumber, hardware, furniture, tools, guns, ammunition, boats, tents, medicines, surgical implements, medical books. Barter goods in stock at Teller Reindeer Station were transferred to new reindeer purchasing station at St. Lawrence Bay, Siberia, August, 1897. In all traffic in the arctic region barter goods are used in lieu of money. Money is useful only where there are markets and shops with stores of goods on sale. Neither Russian money nor the money of any other nations is used among the tribes in northeastern Siberia, nor on the Alaskan coasts opposite. d This does not include the cost of the 171 reindeer bought with barter goods purchased with the fund of $2,156 contributed by benevolent individuals in 1893. Number and distribution of domestic reindeer in Alaska June 30, 1897. Location of herds. Government herd, Teller Station, Port Clarence. Capo Nome herd, in charge of native Charlie. Golovin Bay herd (Swedish mission). Golovin Bay herd (for Episcopal mission). Cape Prince of Wales herd (Congregational mission). Sekeogluk, apprentice at Teller Station. Tatpan, apprentice at Golovin Bay. 1892. 1893. 1894. 143 323 79 145 171 124 120 123 171 346 588 28 Number of reindeer that have been lent by the Government to missionary societies and natives, the Government reserving the right after a term of not less than three years to call upon the mission station or individual for the same number of deer as composed the herd loaned: Deer. August, 1894, to the Congregational Missionary Society's Station at Cape Prince of Wales. 118 October, 1897, withdrawn from the Government herd at Teller Station and from the herds at Golovin Bay from 100 to 200 deer trained to harness for use, if necessary, in drawing food from St. Michael to Dawson, under directions of Lieutenent-Colonel Randall at St. Michael. December, 1897, for the relief of the whalers in the Arctic Sea, the Cape Nome herd, numbering 278, and the Cape Prince of Wales herd, numbering 367, to be under the direction of Lieut. D. H. Jarvis, U. S. revenue cutter Bear, promising to make good those borrowed by a transfer from the Government herd during the summer of 1898. I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. W. T. HARRIS, LL. D., Commissioner of Education, Washington, D. C. PART III. CHAPTER XXXVI. INSTITUTIONS FOR HIGHER EDUCATION. STATISTICAL REVIEW OF HIGHER EDUCATION, 1896–97. The scholastic year 1896-97 has witnessed a decrease in the attendance of students at a large number of institutions for higher education, as well as a decrease in the number of such institutions. This office has been notified during the year of the suspension of the following-named institutions: Little Rock University, Little Rock, Ark.; Pierce Christian College, College City, Cal.; San Joaquin Valley College, Woodbridge, Cal.; Hartsville College, Hartsville, Ind.; Northwestern Christian College, Excelsior, Minn.; Ozark College, Greenfield, Mo.: Ashland University, Ashland, Ohio; Monongahela College, Jefferson, Pa.; St. James College, Vancouver, Wash.; Jones College for Young Ladies, Gadsden, Ala.; Winchester Female College, Winchester, Ky., and Wesleyan Female Institute, Staunton, Va. A further decrease in the list of institutions for higher education was caused by the transfer to the list of secondary schools of four institutions. Also, St. Mary's College, Oakland, Cal.; Calvin College, Cleveland, Ohio, and Redfield College, Redfield, S. Dak., have not been heard from for several years, and therefore are not included in the list of colleges. One of the most discouraging features in our system of higher education is the lack of any definite, or, in fact, in a large number of States, the lack of any requirements or conditions exacted of institutions when they are chartered and authorized to confer degrees. This condition of affairs is largely, if not entirely, responsible for the large number of weak so-called colleges and universities scattered throughout our country, institutions that are no better than high schools, and in a large number of cases do not furnish as good an education as may be obtained in good secondary schools. Nevertheless, these institutions are chartered and granted authority to confer all degrees usually granted by universities and colleges in the United States. The chartering of such institutions has been rendered impossible in the States of New York and Pennsylvania, and the subject of restricting to well-equipped institutions the authority to confer degrees is being agitated in several other States. That such action is desirable, if not absolutely necessary, may be seen from the fact, as stated in the report of the State superintendent of public instruction of Pennsylvania for 1896, that more than 120 institutions in that State have been empowered to confer degrees. Students.-The total number of students reported in the collegiate, graduate, and professional departments of institutions for higher education and in professional schools for the year 1896-97 is 140,133, of which number 42,999 were enrolled as professional students pursuing studies in law, medicine, and theology, leaving 97,134 students reported as pursuing what are generally known as liberal studies. This is a decrease of 255 students from the number reported in the preceding year, the loss being in the institutions classed as universities and colleges for men and for both sexes. An examination of Table 2 of this chapter shows that the number of undergraduate and graduate students reported by public institutions is 27,654, being an increase of 1,358 students, thus proving that the decrease was in the institutions not under the control of the State or municipality. Table 3 gives the number of collegiate and graduate students from the several States and Territories in universities and colleges for men and for both sexes, colleges for women, Division A, and in schools of technology, the estimated population of each State, and the number of people to each college student. In this compilation the colleges for women, Division B (Table 39), are not included, owing to the fact that in a large number of these institutions the students are not classified in such manner as to enable one to separate the primary and preparatory from the collegiate students, while in other cases the residence of students is not given in the catalogues of the institutions. The drawing power of the institutions of the several States, as shown by the number and proportion of students drawn from the various sections of the country, is shown in Tables 4, 5, and 6. From Table 6 it is seen that 803 students from foreign countries are receiving collegiate and graduate instruction in the United States. The number of students who remain at college pursuing advanced studies after having completed courses of study leading to a bachelor's degree is constantly increasing. The total number of such students reported in 1896-97 by all classes of institutions is 4,919, of which number 1,413 were women. These numbers do not include the students who remain at college for the purpose of pursuing professional studies in law, medicine, theology, etc. The following tabular statement gives the number of resident graduate students in the several departments of some of the principal universities and colleges of the country: According to the report of President Gilman of Johns Hopkins University for the year 1896-97, 2,103 persons have pursued graduate studies at that institution since its establishment, of which number 436 have been given the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The following diagrams, based on figures in the Handbook of Graduate Courses for 1897-98, published by the Federation of Graduate Clubs, show the popularity of the several branches of study among graduate students. The statistics were collected from 24 of the leading institutions of the country, and should therefore be fairly representative of graduate work. There are included in the investigation 3,204 students, divided among the various branches of study as follows: Philosophy and Ethics, 519. History, Politics, Law, 488. English, 423. Classics, 379. Economics, Sociology, Anthropology, 377. Psychology. Pedagogy, 298. German, 287. Biology, 271. Mathematics, 247. Chemistry, 208. Romance Languages, 196. Physics, 189. Geology, Geography, 143. Indo-Iranian and Comparative Philology, 138. Semitics, 129. Astronomy, 51. Fine Arts and History of Art, 37. Grouping the above subjects under five general headings, it is found that the groups were chosen by the students in the following proportion: Courses of study.-A large number of institutions for higher education maintain professional, technical, and special courses of study in addition to the usual studies required in an undergraduate course. In some cases these studies may be counted toward fulfilling the requirements for one of the more common degrees, while in other cases special degrees are conferred on the completion of such courses. Table 41 gives the courses maintained by the universities and colleges for men and for both sexes, and Table 42 gives the courses maintained by schools of technology. These tables show that instruction in agriculture is given by 53 institutions, architecture by 16, art by 175, business or commercial courses by 216, civil engineering by 92, domestic science by 34, dentistry by 22, electrical engineering by 70, law by 73, mechanical engineering by 73, mining engineering by 33, medicine by 57, military science or tactics by 104, music by 328, pedagogy by 211, pharmacy by 30, sanitary engineering by 12, theology by 90, and veterinary science by 27. Besides the courses included in Tables 41 and 42, it is found that instruction in naval architecture and marine engineering is given by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Michigan, and Cornell University, and instruction ED 97-104 |