Notwithstanding all this, Marsh was a very able man and he rendered 

 immense services to American palaeontology in a series of really won- 

 derful discoveries; he fully deserved his great reputation here and in 

 Europe. Fiirbringer, of Heidelberg, called him "der grosste Palaontolog 

 aller Zeiten," which is somewhat extravagant praise. I never thought him 

 equal to Cope; if the two could have cooperated, the results would have 

 been marvellous. 



Dr. Leidy, whose acquaintance we made the following winter, when 

 we were continually running to Philadelphia to consult him, was at that 

 time drawing out of palaeontology and devoting himself to other lines 

 of v/ork. For this course he had two reasons, both true, but only one was 

 for publication, I think it was Sir Archibald Geikie who tells of Leidy's 

 having explained the cause of his deserting palaeontology. He said that 

 formerly any one in the country who found a fossil would send it to 

 him as a matter of course, but now Cope and Marsh, both rich men, were 

 paying real money for such junk and bidding against each other and, in 

 consequence, he was getting very little material. This was true enough, 

 but not the whole truth, for he once expressed to me privately his 

 extreme dislike of the Cope-Marsh squabble and said that he was getting 

 out of palaeontological work because he didn't wish to be drawn into 

 the quarrel. 



The palaeontological war was sustained and abetted by the chaotic 

 state of the geological work done by the various agencies of the U.S. 

 Government. No less than four distinct and rival organizations were 

 engaged in surveying and geologically mapping the Western country; 

 they had long official names, but were popularly called after their chiefs, 

 Dr. Hayden, Lieutenant Wheeler, Mr. Clarence King and Major 

 Powell. Leidy and Cope were associated with Hayden and Cope also 

 with Wheeler, who was an officer of the Army Engineer Corps; Marsh 

 was connected with King and subsequently with Powell. Because of 

 Cope and Leidy, we were partisans of Hayden and opposed to King, 

 Clarence King must have been a man of singular charm, as appears from 

 Henry Adams' account of him and, when I was a student in London 

 and had the honour of meeting the great Professor Tyndall at dinner, he 

 immediately inquired, with every evidence of sincere friendship, after 

 the health of King. 



Against Major Powell I had a strong prejudice, from which I did not 

 free myself for years. It arose in this manner: In the spring of 1876, my 

 Junior year, I paid a short visit to Washington and Professor Joseph 

 Henry invited me to attend a meeting of one of the local scientific 



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