REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1919. 39 



The delay characteristic of Brazil retarded the establishment of 

 the survey, and, on the advice of Hartt, Mr. Rathbiin remained east, 

 not returning to complete his course at Cornell. He was the as- 

 sistant in zoology at the Boston Society of Natural History from 

 1873 to 1875, and during the same period continued work at the 

 Museum of Comparative Zoologj^, through the courtesy of Dr. Alex- 

 ander Agassiz. During the summers of 1874 and 1875 he also served 

 as a volunteer scientific assistant under Professor Baird in the ma- 

 rine explorations of the Fish Commission on the New England 

 coast, this being his first connection with the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion. 



In the autumn of 1875 he received directions from the Brazilian 

 minister at Washington to report at Kio de Janeiro, as geologist of 

 the Geological Commission of Brazil. He reached his destination 

 in December, and remained in Brazil until March, 1878, when his 

 chief. Professor Hartt, died of yellow fever. As the party was 

 small, the duties of each member were unusually varied and exten- 

 sive, being divided between the field and the headquarters at Rio de 

 Janeiro. Mr. Rathbun began field work in the region about the Bay 

 of Bahia, and continued thence down the coast of the Province of 

 the same name to near its southern end. Extensive deposits of coal, 

 reputed to occur in parts of this region, constituted one of the special 

 objects of the trip, but the geology was studied in all respects and 

 also the extensive coral reefs which lie along this coast and the 

 ethnology of the Indian tribes living but a short distance inland. 

 The report upon the geology and coral reefs was published in the 

 archives of the National Museum of Brazil. 



Mr. Rathbun's second piece of field work was through the central 

 and southern parts of the Province of Sao Paulo to determine the 

 mineral and especially the coal resources, which proved very unim- 

 portant, though he had the opportunity of working out the origin 

 of the rich red lands which produce the famous coffee of that region. 



On returning to the United States, Mr. Rathbun brought with him 

 complete series of the Devonian and Cretaceous fossils and of the 

 corals, which have since, through exchange, become the property of 

 the United States National Museum. He began the study of this 

 material and published a few papers upon it, but new duties occupy- 

 ing all of his time, the remainder was turned over to other specialists. 



In the spring of 1878 Mr. Rathbun was offered by Professor Baird 

 and accepted the position of scientific assistant on the United States 

 Fish Commission. He continued in this service, with promotions, 

 until the close of 1896. In the beginning there was not room at 

 Washington for the Fish Commission collections and they were kept 

 at the Museum of Yale Univei'sity under Professor Verrill, to whoip 



