has already been described in the preface of my History of Land Mam- 

 mals in the Western Hemisphere, but as that work has not had a wide 

 circulation, I may repeat the story here. Certainly, no account of my 

 life could be complete that omitted the tale. 



We had reached the examination period in June and, one very hot 

 day, had gone down to the canal for a swim. Personally, I can remember 

 only Osborn and Speir as being of the party, but I have reason to think 

 that Ji Scott was there also. After bathing and dressing, we lay on the 

 canal bank and tried to read Paley, but it was too hot to do real work 

 and we began to talk. I said: "Fellows! I have just been reading in an 

 old Harper's an account of a Yale expedition to the Far West in search 

 of fossils; why can't we get up something like that?" I hardly meant my 

 question seriously, but Speir and Osborn took to the suggestion at 

 once and, with one voice exclaimed: "We can, let's do it." The most 

 curious part of it all is that we did, thanks to the enthusiasm and de- 

 termination with which we pushed the scheme. 



Both Osborn and I had been immensely interested in Dr. Guyot's 

 course in geology, which filled the second and third terms of our Junior 

 year; though we had no laboratory or field work, but only lectures and 

 a text-book. Dr. Arnold Guyot was an eminent Swiss, a voluntary exile 

 from Neufchatel, who came to this country with Agassiz in conse- 

 quence of the revolution of 1848. He never fully mastered English and, 

 when he prepared his remarkably successful series of geographies, he 

 required the assistance of a well trained woman to put them into lin- 

 guistic shape. We speedily learned to follow the quaint English of his 

 lectures and the subject matter so fascinated us that we resolved to 

 pursue it independently. In the late summer I received a letter from 

 Osborn, suggesting that Speir and I should join him in a camping trip 

 through the Catskill Mountains and teach ourselves some field geology, 

 as a preparation for the projected Western trip. 



Our starting point was from the country house of Mr. Osborn, Sr., 

 at Garrisons on the Hudson, opposite West Point. We had a light, 

 covered wagon with one horse and carried a tent, camping equipment 

 and provisions. Our first goal was Lake Mohonk, where we camped 

 two or three days and had our first sight of glacial markings, and then 

 pushed on to the Catskills. At the Mountain House we found Dr. 

 McCosh and his family and had no difficulty in inducing Andy to join 

 us for the rest of the trip. He never said so, but I fancy that "me son 

 Andrew" was very much bored with life in a summer hotel. I had sev- 

 eral talks with Dr. McCosh, who flattered me by treating me as a 



C48] 



