In our New England climate a long-continued thaw in the middle of February means, as our ancestors used to say, that the "back of the winter is broken." Therefore, although we shall have probably several more cold snaps before the spring really opens, the cold waves will not last long. There has been much discussion of the matter of flooding Holmes field for skating purposes. That the plan proposed is quite feasible, there is no doubt. The field is nearly, if not quite, level, and not more than an average depth of six inches of water would be needed to cover the whole available surface. This water would be furnished by the city at a low price - two cents per hundred gallons - so that the cost of flooding would be small. The apparently serious objection has been made that if such a scheme as that proposed should be adopted, the open air practice of the Mott Haven team, always begun of necessity much later here than at other colleges, would be thereby delayed for a much longer time. But the ground is of a very porous nature, and may be readilydrained; then, too, the field of course would not be flooded after the final thaw began. Therefore, the two objections urged against the plan are of very small weight. But in favor of such a plan, there is everything to be said.

No one denies that skating is one of the most beneficial of out-door sports, and many men who cannot spare the time to go as far as Fresh Pond, only to find that there is little or no clear ice, under the new regime would spend much more time out of doors, whereby the general health of the college would be greatly improved.

Then, too, there might be races on the ice, and other regularly organized sports conducted under the auspices of the H. A. A., - scrub table matches of hockey, exhibition skating, hurdle-matches and the like.