XXXI, *20] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS 183 



Mr. Stretch's party consisted of but five, a very insufficient 

 number in view of the numerous hostile Indian bands. But 

 while other and larger emigrant groups were attacked, and 

 in some cases, wiped out, this small party passed unmolested. 

 At the outset of the journey one of Mr. Stretch's collecting 

 bottles, containing a various assortment of insects in alcohol, 

 had rolled from one of the wagons unobserved. A friendly 

 Indian had found and returned it. Mr. Stretch displayed 

 his entomological wares to this red skin, who viewed them with 

 intense interest, but not in a scientific way. And all along 

 the line of the emigrant trail word was passed among the 

 Indians that a Big Medicine Chief was coming, and appar- 

 ently orders were given that no harm should befall him. 



Arriving at Salt Lake City, Mr. Stretch altered his plans 

 and proceeded to Virginia City, then a rip-roaring frontier 

 mining camp. First employed as a cook, he later ran a saw 

 mill, and after that became associated with a Mr. Chapman 

 in a land office business. 



Here again his entomological knowledge served him well, 

 for his eye, trained in the discrimination of minute differences, 

 also permitted him with ease to grade the various types of 

 ore. And then, to his astonishment, he was elected state 

 mineralogist of Nevada. He says now that it was with many 

 misgivings that he undertook the duties required of this 

 office, for his knowledge of mining was very scanty. But 

 close observation and study overcame that, and eventually 

 he became known as the best maker of mining maps in 

 America. 



In 1867 he journeyed on to California, being among the 

 earliest of the emigrants to cross the fearful Death Valley, 

 meeting with Indians who had never before encountered 

 white men. It was in this year that he introduced the method 

 of making squares on maps, marked A. B. C. and I, 2, 3, etc., 

 now used the world over. He visited San Francisco, and 

 also descended into Chihuahua, Mexico, to examine an old 

 mine. Those were the days of hardships in travel, and Mr. 

 Stretch recalls now, laughingly, one incident in particular 



when the food supply gave out, and he and the other members 



t 



