4 o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



east. This hypothesis was verified in 1852 by Captain McClure's 

 making the passage in the direction described. 



As Mr. Lea advanced in his geological studies, he found that it was 

 necessary to know something of shells. In order to study their genera 

 as described by Lamarck, he imported a large collection of shells from 

 China. He soon became interested in this branch of the science, and 

 ultimately made it the leading object of his researches. A collection 

 of several species of Unio, including some beautiful and rare specimens, 

 was sent to the Academy of Natural Sciences, in 1825, by Major Long, 

 of the Engineer Corps, who had obtained them in dredging the chan- 

 nel of the Ohio River below Louisville. At about the same time, Mr. 

 Lea's brother Thomas, having engaged to look after the shells in the 

 vicinity of Cincinnati, where he was living, shipped a barrel of shells 

 of rare beauty, including six new species. The description of these 

 specimens " Description of Six New Specimens of the Genus Unio " 

 presented to the American Philosphical Society in 1827, formed the 

 first of that long series of papers on the Unio and allied shells which 

 constitute the chief of Mr. Lea's works. Yet, at the time he presented 

 it, he had no thought that he should ever have another word to say on 

 the subject, for at that time no one conceived the infinite variety of 

 species of the family which American waters are now known to con- 

 tain. As a side-result of Mr. Lea's interest in the Unios may be men- 

 tioned the conversion of his brother from an indifferent barreler of 

 shells for another to an enthusiastic student of land-shells and botany, 

 and to be the author of a monograph on " The Plants of Cincinnati." 



Dr. Lea spent the traveling season of 1832 in Europe, where the 

 journal of his excursions is a record of successive introductions to famous 

 scientific men, and interesting conversations with them, in which he was 

 never the onlv one who received information. In London he attended 

 a meeting of the Geological Society, and met most of the leading geolo- 

 gists of Great Britain. At Oxford, he attended the second meeting 

 of the British Association, over which Dr. Buckland presided. Meet- 

 ing Dr. Buckland afterward in London, the conversation turned upon 

 the quantity of coal in the United States. Dr. Buckland thought we 

 had very little coal. Dr. Lea pointed out on a map the coal-fields of 

 the United States as they were then known. After several hours 

 spent in the examination of the matter, Dr. Buckland taking notes all 

 the time, the distinguished geologi&t remarked, as he took his leave to 

 meet an engagement, that England had enough coal to supply the 

 United States when its supply should fail. Dr. Lea replied that the 

 quantity of anthracite and bituminous coal was almost unlimited in 

 North America, and promised to send him maps and sections that 

 would satisfy him upon the subject. He fulfilled his promise after 

 he returned home, and, upon the evidence thus afforded, Dr. Buckland 

 presented a paper to the next meeting of the British Association on 

 the extent of our coal-supply. At the British Museum, by the re- 



