408 SERENO WATSON. 



in covered with dust, foot-sore, with his hoots and pack slung over 

 his shoulder, and presenting the appearance of one unused to rough 

 mountaineering. But he would not rest, eat, nor wash until he had 

 arranged with the chief of the party for some sort of work to do. 

 He was at first put to plant collecting in connection with miscellane- 

 ous topographical work. The botanist of the expedition, Mr. Bailey, 

 now Professor of Botany at Brown University, had been too ill to 

 botanize in the desert, and this work fell naturally into the hands of 

 Watson. Under date of August 18 he writes: "I am informed to- 

 night of a change in my position. I have worked thus far without any 

 pay heyond my expenses, and giving my special attention to botany, 

 hut I am now assured of a salary, small as yet, but better than nothing, 

 and am detailed to the topographical department." 



One of the members of the party writes : " Watson was an ex- 

 ceedingly hard worker, — on the tops of the mountains, out in the 

 broad sage-brush flats, down in the canons, and tramping amongst 

 the hot springs and alkali soils for plants. What impressed me the 

 first year was not only his energy, but the systematic way in which 

 he searched all kinds of soils and exposures for variations in plant 

 life." 



Of him the leader of the expedition says : " He impressed me as 

 a man of work, grimly and conscientiously in earnest. . . . He smiled 

 only as a forced concession to humor. Everything pertaining to 

 his duty was sacred. . . . He soon learned to ride, and after the 

 first anxieties regarding his duties had worn off he began to enjoy the 

 campaign life and the weird scenery with the greatest enthusiasm. 

 Bailey grew more and more subject to the camp illness, and at last 

 gave up and went home to the East. ... I then installed Wat- 

 son in charge of the Botany. He was then as nearly perfectly 

 happy as I have ever seen a human being. There were periods of 

 at least five minutes at a time when the hereditary New England 

 grimness vanished from his face, and he wore a free, careless air, as if 

 his grandfather might have come from at least as far south as Vir- 

 ginia. If these excessive moments were rare, the general tone had 

 grown calmly happy, and so I believe he remained till his connection 

 with the Fortieth Parallel ceased." 



Another expression by his chief, states what was equally true of 

 his herbarium investigations : " He worked without the least nervous 

 excitement or hurry, but continuously, and for a calm man rather 

 rapidly." 



The report on the botanical studies, and the description of the col- 



