ACADEMY OF HCIWCM.] BIOGRAPHY. 167 



favorite. And tears flowed very freely. To-day I have had the terrible duty of writing to his 

 old father in New Hampshire that the son he was so proud of is not coming. It would not in 

 the least surprise me were they to meet in the other world before they could have met in this." 



The spirit here shown may be regarded as an exceptional manifestation called forth by a 

 tragic event. But even in the more ordinary routine of life at Cordoba Gould's relation to his 

 immediate environment, the observatory staff, contained much that was cordial and stimu- 

 lating albeit mixed with metal of a different quality. Diverse though not irreconcilable im- 

 pressions of the man and master find expression after the lapse of many years in the words of 

 two of his assistants. To one of these "He was a difficult master to serve; his methods were 

 often indirect. He did not develop a loyal feeling among us, while I was there, rather the 

 reverse," and there are suggestions of sarcasm as a lash in frequent use. Quite different are 

 the words of another: "I believe that Dr. Gould accomplished systematically and intelligently 

 all that was' possible under the circumstances. He was very hard working and painstaking, 

 methodical in the care of books, papers, records, and generally inspired his assistants with an 

 excellent disposition to do everything possible." 



Black sheep there were among his assistants who plundered or sought to plunder from their 

 colleagues both prestige and pelf. But happily these were of alien race and every American 

 assistant proved loyal to his trust. They frequented the director's home and shared its sun- 

 shine and its showers. In sorrow they sympathized in the bitter bereavement that came to 

 that home in 1874 through the drowning of the two older Gould children, girls not yet in their 

 teens. WhUe on a birthday outing one of the girls, playfully venturing into the river, Rio 

 Primero, not far from their home, was caught and swept away by its swollen torrent. The 

 sister and the nurse, hastening to her aid, were similarly engulfed and the disaster was complete 

 even before word of it could be brought to the near-by parents. Three children, Alice Bache, 

 Benjamin Apthorp, and Mary Quincy, survived this terrible disaster and all were still living in 

 1921. But the solace they brought to Gould's later years could never completely efface the 

 shock given to the parents by the tragic death of the older girls. Under its depressing effect 

 Gould returned to Boston late in 1874 for a brief vacation in which to recuperate his forces. 

 He was received with open arms by his old friends and townsmen and at a public banquet given 

 in his honor he made an address in explanation of his work and purpose in South America, from 

 which some parts of the present memoir have been taken. 



He returned to the Argentine with the shadow still heavy upon him and with an ever- 

 growing burden. Nearly 10 years later, following Stevens' tragic death, he writes to a former 

 colleague in the Sanitary Commission : " It will be harder than ever for me to keep on now in the 

 dreary separation from my children and home. But there are two grand fellows left me. I am 

 sure they will stand by and I mean to stick to my colors while strength permits. That the need 

 of help is sorer than ever you will well understand." A great loss that had newly come into his 

 life finds reflection rather than expression in these words. During a vacation home in 1883, 

 Mrs. Gould passed away and on his return to Argentina his children were left in New England 

 for training under the influences that had nurtured him. The increasing loneliness of these 

 years was in some measure relieved by the very extensive correspondence which he maintained 

 with a wide circle of friends and fellow scientific workers in the Northern Hemisphere. The 

 collection and publication of this correspondence, if feasible, would be an admirable contribu- 

 tion to the history of astronomy in the nineteenth century. 



But as the hours grew darker the end of his exile was near at hand and in 18S5 he severed 

 his official relations with Cordoba and turned homeward, a broken man with shattered nerves, 

 but with interest in life unshaken and with the power and will to work still strong within him. 

 Not all that he had planned to do under the southern sky was complete but the omissions were 

 few and inconsiderable. His major work, relating to star positions, was finished even to the 

 printer's "copy." Some proposed investigations involving stellar spectra had perforce been 

 crowded out of his program, but in the midst of his official duties and despite their pressure he 



