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led him to adopt an entirely new method in searching for scientific 
material. Knowing the rarity of fossil cycadean trunks and their 
great value to science, he set himself the task of trying to secure 
some of these for the college museum. But, instead of undertak- 
ing a hopeless and aimless quest, as has been done by geologists 
and collectors in the past, he chose to avail himself of the know- 
ledge of the inhabitants of the districts in which the cycads were 
believed to occur. Supported by the Woman’s College, which 
furnished him the means of transportation and met the small ex- 
pense of his work, including an occasional pour doire to some 
needy farmer or miner who possessed information of great value, 
and usually gave it freely, he proceeded to visit the houses of the 
native population, and placing himself on a level with their 
Powers of understanding, he was able to interrogate a large num- 
ber of persons in such a way that they could not fail to compre- 
hend his meaning. Having secured one specimen, he carried it 
about in his wagon and showed it to all whom he met. His sur- 
Prise was great to find that a large proportion of the inhabitants 
of the iron ore districts had at some’ time in their lives seen simi- 
lar things and were able to recognize them. In some cases a per- 
son to whom he would show his specimen would reply at once 
that there was such a stone in his barnyard or near his house, and 
by a very little negotiation he was able easily to secure it. By 
far the greater number, in fact nearly all, of the specimens were 
thus found in the possession of the people. Many of them could 
remember having ploughed them out of their fields, or taken 
them from their ore pits; others there were that had lain so long 
around farm houses whose occupants had several times changed 
that it was impossible to trace them to their original source, but 
usually even in such cases there was a tradition lingering in the 
family with regard to the peculiar stones. The reason why they 
Were so universally picked up and brought to the house or the 
workshop or the barnyard or laid up in some conspicuous place 
Seems to be that their peculiarity was instantly recognized. A 
countryman knows every stone that he has seen about his place, 
and if there be one which differs markedly from all others, especi- 
ally if it has a certain symmetry of form or shows unusual and 
regular markings, he at once distinguishes it, is impressed by its 
