22 The Ottawa Naturalist. [May 



the principle interest shown by second-stage fossil collectors 

 was a "stock-taking" of ancient life, we might call this the in- 

 ventory stage. This "inventory," however, necessitated the 

 giving of names, the description of types, and the classification 

 of the whole it was in consequence a "systematic" stage. 



The third stage we may call the problem stage, and here, 

 for the first time, we meet with collectors whose purpose is the 

 development and illustration of biologic laws and the modern 

 concept of organic evolution. The material collected must 

 throw light on derivation; on distribution in space and time; 

 on the effect of comparatively fixed or changing environments; 

 and on the advancement or ultimate failure of the groups under 

 investigation. To solve these and other biologic problems, the 

 student must acquire a more thorough knowledge of ancient 

 structure and function, and this can only be acquired through 

 material capable of illustrating minute anatomical detail both 

 external and internal. Specimens are now saved, not so much 

 for their individual completeness, as for their evidence concern- 

 ing- details of structure. A display series representing this stage 

 is rarely to be seen outside of our larger museums. 



The first stage is frequently represented to-day by the con- 

 tents of a boy's pocket; the second stage by the. amateur collec- 

 tion of fossils; and the third stage by the mass of fragments and 

 sections found in the paleobiologist's work-shop. The first stage 

 is of little educational value to the average adult. The second 

 stage, however, is of great value to the general public (where it 

 has access to such collections) ; to the student of geology, for 

 by its means he comes to recognize forms that enable him to 

 identify strata of the earth's crust; and to the student who de- 

 sires to enter the field of paleontology, or to become acquainted 

 in a general way with the past evolution of life. The third 

 stage is of vital importance to the world's progress in more 

 ways than we have room to enumerate, and in ways yet unknown 

 to the searchers themselves. 



We should recognize the fact that collectors in their indivi- 

 dual development usually recapitulate these historic stages, 

 and that a collector may become arrested in his development 

 during the first or second stages. He may branch out at one 

 of these levels and become a "new species," but as his work is 

 usually typical of a stage, we shall find it convenient to speak 

 of him as a collector of the first, second or third types. 



The work of collectors of the first and second types is, in 

 needless ways, antagonistic to the work of those of the third 

 type. For instance, the inexperienced collector makes a sur- 

 face find, and with chisel and hammer proceeds to secure his 

 specimen. He begins with great care to cut a groove around 



