RAFINESQUE. 217 



around till he was fairly exhausted, when he begged me to procure 

 one of the animals for him, as he felt convinced that they belonged 

 to a new species. Although I was convinced of the contrary, I took 

 up the bow of my demolished violin, and giving a smart tip to each bat 

 as it came up, we soon had specimens enough." 



A part of the story of this visit, which Audubon does not tell, may 

 be briefly related here : Audubon was a great artist, and his paintings 

 of birds and flowers excited the wonder and admiration of Rafinesque, 

 as it has that of the generations since his time. But Audubon was 

 something of a wag withal, and some spirit of mischief led him to 

 revenge the loss of his violin on the too ready credulity of his guest. 

 He showed him gravely some ten grotesque drawings of impossible 

 fishes which he had observed " down the river," with notes on their 

 habits, and a list of the names by which they were known by the 

 French and the English settlers. These Rafinesque duly copied into 

 his note-books, and later he published descriptions of them as repre- 

 sentatives of new genera, such as Pogostoma, Aplocentrus, J^itholepis, 

 PilodictiSy and the like. 



These singular genera, so like and yet so unlike to anything yet 

 known, have been a standing puzzle to students of fishes. Various 

 attempts at identification of them have been made, but in no case have 

 satisfactory results been reached. Many of the hard things which have 

 been said of Rafinesque's work rest on these unlucky genera, " com- 

 municated to me by Mr. Audubon." The true story of this practical 

 joke was told me by the venerable Dr. Kirtland, who in turn received 

 it from Dr. Bachman, the brother-in-law and scientific associate of 

 Audubon. In the private note-books of Rafinesque I have since found 

 his copies of these drawings, and a glance at these is sufficient to show 

 the extent to which science through him has been victimized. 



About this time Rafinesque turned his mind again toward inven- 

 tion. He invented the present arrangement of coupon bonds, or, as 

 he called it, " the divitial invention." Savings-banks were projected 

 by him, as well as "steam plows," "aquatic railroads," fire-proof 

 houses, and other contrivances which he was unable to perfect. He 

 took much delight in the study of the customs and languages of the 

 Indians. In so doing, if the stories are true, he became, in a meas- 

 ure, one of the ancestors of Mormonism ; for it is said that his sug- 

 gestion that the Indians came from Asia by way of Siberia, and were 

 perhaps the descendants of the ten lost tribes of Israel, gave the first 

 suggestion to Solomon Spalding, on which he built his book of the 

 prophet Mormon. In any case, whether this be true or not, it is cer- 

 tain that Rafinesque is still cited as high authority by the Latter- 

 day Saints when the genuineness of the book of Mormon is questioned. 



Rafinesque now returned to Philadelphia and published " The At- 

 lantic Journal and Friend of Knowledge," "Annals of Nature," and 

 other serials, of which he was editor, publisher, and usually sole con- 



