102 MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



which he tacked to the plow-beam. Wlieuever he was missed and 

 iuquiiv was made about liim, the answer invariablv was. "ir^omewhere 

 with a book." He was most interested in tlie natural sciences, particu- 

 larly in chemistry and its applications to agriculture, and in com- 

 parative i)hysiolo<iy and analoniy. and was a diligent student and col- 

 lector of mollusks. 



Choosing the i>rofession of medicine, Mr. Miles was graduated M. I), 

 from Rush Medical college, Chicago, in 1850, and practiced till 1859. 

 In the meantime he became greatly interested in the subject of a 

 geological survey of the State, for which an act was i>assed and approved 

 in 1858. In the organization of the survey, in 1851), he was appointed 

 Assistant State Geologist in the department of zoology; and in the next 

 year was appointed professor of zoology and animal physiology in the 

 State Agricultural college at Lansing. 



In his work as zoologist to the State Geological Survey, in 1850. 1860, 

 and 1861, he displayed rare qualities as a naturalist, so that Mr. Walter 

 B. Barrows, in recording his death in the bulletin of the ^Michigan 

 Ornithological Club, expresses regret that many of the years he after- 

 ward devoted to the development of experimental agriculture "were not 

 spent in unraveling some of the important biological problems which 

 the State afforded, which his skill and perseverance would surely have 

 solved." lie was a ''born collector," Mr. Barrows adds, "as the jthrase 

 is, and his keen eyes, tireless industry, and mathematical precision led 

 to the accumulation of thousands of valuable specimens and more valu- 

 able observations." 



Mr. Bryant Walker, of Detroit, who knew Professor ^liles well in 

 later years, and had opportunity to review his zoological work, regards 

 the part he took during this service in developing the knowledge of the 

 fauna of the >State as having been very prominent. "The catalogues 

 he ]»ul)lished in the report for 1860 have been the basis for all work 

 since that time.'' He kept in correspondence with the most eminent 

 American naturalists of the period, including Cope, Prime, Lea, W. G. 

 Biuney, Baird, and Agassiz, and supplied them with large quantities of 

 valuable material. From the many letters written by these naturalists 

 which are in the possession of his friends, we take, as illustrating the 

 character of the service he rendered and of the trust they reposed in 

 him, even previous to his going on the survev, one from Agassiz, of 

 February 4, 1856: 



''Dear Sir: As you have already furnished me with invaluable ma- 

 terials for the natural history of the fishes of your State, I am 

 emboldened to ask another favor of you. I am preparing a map of the 

 Geographical distribution of the Turtles of North America, and would 

 be greatly indebted to you for any information resp(M-ting the range 

 of those found in your State, as far as you have noticed them, even if 

 you should know them only by their common names, my object being 

 sim])ly to ascertain how far they extend over ditTerent pai'ts of the 

 country. If you could add si)eciniens of them, to identify them with 

 precision, it would be, of course, so much tli<^ better; but as I am alm(»st 

 ready for the press, I could not for this paper await the return of spring, 

 but would tliaidv you for what you could furnish nu' now. I am par- 

 ticularly interested in ascertaining how far north the different species 



