Selwyn House School - Yearbook (Montreal, Quebec Canada)

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Slil.VYYN HOUSE SCHOOI, NIAG.-XZlNla Qllbristmas in jlltlexitn. ln Mexico we had a boat made of cardboard. The people put nuts and candy into this boat. They would pull them up and down with a rope, then they would break the candy with a stick. Then all the children would run to pick up the candy. We'd do this after school. Our school was in a back yard where my Grandmother lived. :X lfrench teacher taught us there. XY:-'d draw squares there, as in arithmetic. All this was before Christmas. One Christmas my Grandfather gave me a pony: his name was Pinocchio. l often rode him at my birthday party. There is never snow in Mexico except on the high mountains. l went swimming in a pool in the open air on Christmas day. There is a beautiful park in Mexico City named Chapultepec. On Sunday mornings gentlemen riders known as Charros wearing large hats called sombreros are seen riding through the park. Often an orchestra is playing under the trees, and the Charros stop to listen to the music and to talk and laugh together while their horses prance. Many little boys in leather trousers and 'iackets like those of the Charros ride on ponies near their fathers. K. N., Form B. L.-Xge 73 The Utims Machine. lfor the second time within a year, the little schooner Toronto sounded her way carefully through the numerous reefs and shoals outside the large, uncharted, tropical island off the coast of South America. Two months ago they had sailed between the same dangerous reefs, with the Object of charting it. They had gone into the interior, and, in a small clearing in the dense jungle, they had found the Time Machine. They had not then known its purposeg and Skipper Aloe Uwens, the old salt who owned the Toronto , had produced a battered old kodak and taken two or three photo- graphs of the machine. These photographs he had shown to the Royal Society in London. None of these distinguishshed scientists had ever seen a machine that even slightly resembled it. Thus it was that Skipper Owens, as he navigated the reefs for the second time, carried as pas- sengers, two eminent scientists, Professor Stillger and Professor London. This time they had a little diHiculty in locating the Machine but after Houndering through the lusuriant vegetation for about twenty minutes, they saw the sun glinting on it, some distance away. The two scientists dashed up to it, followed by that part of the crew that had not stayed on the ship. There was a large covered platform beneath the main part of the machine with a huge leyer in the centre, and two or three low benches around. The men were cooling ofl l29l

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FOR THE SCHOOL YE.-KR 193' t-1938 aquarium, on the sand and on the plants, this is called algae, and is caused by excess light. However, it is very good for the fish although not pretty. Plants should be planted in well washed sand, and the prepared tank Cwith water in itj should be allowed to stand for about 36 hours before the fish are put in. Scientificalfy, fish have two namesg the first is usually descriptive, and the second Latin. There are many kinds of tropical fish, which are divided into two main groups, namely egg-layers and live-bearers. With the live-bearers the eggs are hatched inside the body of the female and the young come out alive, but with the egg-layers the eggs are expelled and hatch outside. Of all tropical fish the Guppy is probably the best known, but if I were to call it Lebistes Reticulatus, you would not know what I was talking about. Ir is a live-bearer and comes from Venezuela. There is one fish that is particularly interesting, viz. the Siamese fighting fish or Betta Splendens. If two males are put together they will immediately hght to a finish. Yvhen breeding time comes on, the male blows a bubble and coaxes the female to lay her eggs into it, after the bubble nest has been filled, the female is driven off or killed. In about two days the eggs hatch and the young come out. The babies may be under the father's care for three weeks, but after twelve days they are usually ignored or eaten. Some of the fish I have in my aquarium are as follows:- Neon Tetras: they are a new fish and have a very luminous bright blue stripe on top and a red one underneath. Pristella Riddlei, Br. Guiana: Y- they are absolutely transparent, you can see all the bones. Black Mollienisia, Southern l'.S.:I colour, coal black. Of all hobbies I think the keeping and breeding of Tropical fish is probably the most interesting. c. A. xv, Form 3. Iss raquettes nurhigisnnzs. Un ancien ecrivain norvegien parle des raquettes norvegiennes. Ces raquettes sont des planches qui ont six ou huit pieds de long et trois ou quatre pouces large. Quand un homme a attache ces planches a ses pieds, il peut devancer les chiens les plus rapides ou meme le renne. Il y a des hommes si rapides qu'ils peuvent abattre avec la lance neuf rennes dans leur course. Ces raquettes, ou ski, sont extremement utiles en Norvege, ou pendant tout l'hiver une neige epaisse couvre la terre. Quand les enfants n'ont plus de trois ou quatre ans, ils essaient de surmonter les premieres difficultes, et plus tard ils voya- gent partout sur leurs raquettes longues. E. M. B., Form 5. l27l

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FOR THE SCHOOL YEAR 1937-1938 on the benches, when suddenly Skipper Owens slipped and fell on the metal floor, his arm pushing over the lever. There was a roar as the machine, suddenly and startlingly, came to life. They could see little of the scenery, only glimpses once in a while, as through a semi-opaque wall. Tliey saw huge forms looming up near the machine, but frightened by the noise, Qthey afterwards discovered that they were giant sauriansl, they would lumber away. At last, as suddenly as it had started, the machine stopped, there was a click and a slight whir and the semi-opaque screen vanished, and, for the first time, they could see the forest outside. But it was a forest so utterly alien, so diFferent from any forest any of them had ever seen. Then London, who had been conversing with Stillger in low tones, exclaimed: I think this is the vegetation that existed in the Jurassic Period of the Mesozoic Era, some 90,000,000 years ago. Skipper Owens gasped. Phew l murmured one of the men, 90,000,000 years before I was born l Stillger, who was well known in London as a naturalist and a palzeontologist, was in his element. He was expertly netting small specimens of the animal and insect life that abounded on the swampy ground. London, who was a mathematician, was sitting quietly in the shade, ignoring the buzzing insects, his pencil working at lightning speed. Skipper Owens, glancing over London's shoulder, saw nothing but a mass of weirdly arranged algebraical symbols and equations. Suddenly one of the men came stumbling blindly through the undergrowth, bleed- ing from a dozen CLItS and deep wounds on his arms and head. Look out , he screamed insanely, they're coming, alligators with wings! six yards longf almost got me... and he collapsed to the ground. Stillger cried out in a panic-stricken voice, To the machine, quick l or you'll be mincemeat. Here they come, pterodactyls, dozens of 'em l The men started for the machine, but before they half reached it, veritable hell broke loose l The men carried modern express rifles, but of what use is an express rifle when there are dozens of flying devils swooping down on one from all angles F By the time they got to the machine there were live of Owens' men missing. London pulled the lever back to its original position. Five missing, eh F Not a hope for them, poor fellows, he said. By some miracle of chance, they had pushed the lever back to its former neutral position, and as they walked back towards the ship, London was muttering to himself, VYhat a boost to science, warping the space-time continuum, this machine will have to be transported to London, to be used for scientific purposes. As to its origin, I won- der. .. D. H., Form 4. l39l