836 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



at Louisville, Kentucky. Here his attention was drawn to the study 

 of the luxuriant flora of that favored region, and he began a collection 

 of plants which grew till it numbered about eight thousand species. 

 He also collected the river-shells of the region, and sent several new 

 species to Isaac Lea, of Philadelphia. His first scientific paper was 

 produced in connection with his work here, and was " a Notice of the 

 Louisville and Shippingsport Canal, and of the Geology of the Vicin- 

 ity," illustrated with plans, geological sections, and a map, and re- 

 markable for containing the first published notice of the occurrence of 

 petroleum in the cavities of limestone rocks. He was next engaged 

 on the Ohio Canal, at Portsmouth, and published in 1832, in the 

 " American Journal of Science," where his former paper had appeared, 

 a second article on the " Geology of Ohio." In the next year he was 

 appointed Secretary of the Ohio State Board of Canal Commissioners, 

 and removed to Columbus, where he continued his scientific studies 

 under the stimulus of improved opportunities ; figured as an officer 

 and active member of the Historical and Philosophical Society of 

 Ohio ; and served as a member of a committee appointed by the Legis- 

 lature to investigate and report upon the subject of a geological sur- 

 vey of the State. 



In 1836 he removed to Milwaukee, then in the Territory of Michi- 

 gan, now in the State of Wisconsin, where, or in the neighborhood, 

 he spent the rest of his life, and where he was identified with the birth 

 and development of the scientific interests of the Territory and State. 

 It was his privilege here to play an important part in the institution 

 of security and the settlement of land-titles, the effects of which were 

 undoubtedly felt in the peaceful settlement of the country and the 

 establishment of its society. New-comers found the Territory as yet 

 unorganized, and without any provisions for the purchase or pre-emp- 

 tion of the public lands. Conflicts might easily arise, and the best 

 claims could have no legal title to rest upon. The settlers agreed upon 

 the course they would pursue, and appointed Mr. Lapham a register 

 of claims, to take charge of the records of all entries of land and trans- 

 fers. Under this system farm improvements were made in confidence, 

 and, when the land-offices were established, the register's records were 

 recognized and acted upon as authentic evidences of pre-emption right. 

 Mr. Lapham performed this service gratuitously. 



Mr. Lapham's life was henceforth spent between the conduct of a 

 business that secured him a competency without superabundant wealth, 

 and the scientific study of all that related, or could be of interest to, 

 the Territory and State. In 1838 he printed a catalogue of the plants 

 and shells found in the vicinity of Milwaukee ; and in 1844 he pub- 

 lished a comprehensive work on Wisconsin which served for a long 

 time as a standard manual of the character and resources of the State 

 and a guide to immigrants. A treatise on the grasses of Wisconsin and 

 the adjacent States, which was published in the first volume of the 



