548 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



time, it is important to note that he was enrolled as a student at 

 Penikese under Louis Agassiz, who was not slow to observe the 

 remarkable powers of the young naturalist. In 1874 Jordan re- 

 turned to Penikese as lecturer in marine botany. In the follow- 

 ing year he became Professor of Biology at Butler University, near 

 Indianapolis; in 1879, Professor of Zoology at the Indiana Univer- 

 sity; and in 1885, president of the same institution. This last 

 position he held until 1891, when he was selected as the first Presi- 

 dent of the Leland Stanford Junior University. 



In 1880 Jordan was appointed " Special Agent of the United 

 States Census Bureau " for the investigation of the marine in- 

 dustries of the Pacific coast. In this capacity, with the assist- 

 ance of Prof. Charles K. Gilbert, Jordan made the first compre- 

 hensive survey ever undertaken of the fishes, both fresh-water 

 and marine, of our Occidental seaboard. The records of the scien- 

 tific discoveries made in the course of this survey are scattered 

 through many bulletins of the United States Fish Commission, 

 while the chief economic results are recorded in the section of 

 the Tenth Census Report devoted to fisheries. 



Of Jordan's hundreds of published works, great and small, 

 but a few of the most important can be enumerated here. The 

 most bulky of them, A Synopsis of the Fishes of North America, 

 is a book of nearly twelve hundred pages, the authorship of which 

 is shared with Prof. Gilbert. The Manual of the Vertebrate Ani- 

 mals of the Northern United States (A. C. McClurg & Co.) has 

 grown through several successive editions from a small pocket 

 volume to a stout octavo of nearly four hundred pages. It is an 

 extremely useful work, and attempts to give such guidance with 

 respect to the classification of vertebrate animals as a botanical 

 key gives with respect to our flora. In his Science Sketches (A. C. 

 McClurg & Co., 1887) are collected several papers and addresses 

 of a popular character. Noteworthy among them are The Story of 

 a Salmon (first published in this magazine). The Story of a Stone 

 (first published in St. Nicholas), Darwin, and The Ascent of the 

 Matterhorn. Some of these sketches are marked by a union of 

 sound knowledge, with a whimsical humor and delicate fancy 

 which is sufficiently rare among men, whether scientific or liter- 

 ary, and which goes far to convince readers that Jordan might 

 have attained a place in literature j)erhaps as distinguished as his 

 place in science. 



What always strikes even a casual observer in Jordan is that 

 he seldom does things as other men do them. If it can not always 

 be said that his way is the best, his unfailing success attests that 

 it is anyhow the best for him. In bearing, phrase, turn of wit, and 

 simplicity of life, he is unique, and that without the slightest 

 affectation of originality. This was true of him as a student. He 



