like Mr. Brown in Bret Harte's immortal poem, I had happened on 

 "an animile that was extremely rare." 



The skeleton, as speedily appeared, was remarkably complete, the 

 finder having made an uncommonly good job of getting it out. Very 

 few bones were missing and nearly every one that had been lost could 

 readily be restored from its fellov/ of the opposite side. The creature was 

 evidently related to the Moose (Alces), but with certain significant 

 resemblances to the true Deer (Cervtis), while the antlers were unlike 

 those found in any other member of the family. I had to make a new 

 genus for it and therefore called it Cervalces, as indicative of its inter- 

 mediate position. I published a brief account of the discovery in Science 

 and an elaborate study in the Proceedings of the Academy in Phila- 

 delphia. The mounted skeleton remains unique; it has no fellow. 



Shortly after this beautiful specimen had been put on exhibition in 

 the museum, Mr. E. E. Howell, one of the partners in Ward's Natural 

 Science establishment at Rochester, N. Y., who was visiting Princeton, 

 stood looking at our new treasure. Suddenly, he amazed and discon- 

 certed me by bursting into a roar of laughter and, somewhat piqued by 

 this frivolous attitude toward our great discovery, I asked him what he 

 saw in it that was so amusing. He replied: "The joke is on us. The 

 man who found that, wrote and offered it to us, but we were so tired 

 of wild-goose chases after the bones of old mules and cows that we paid 

 no attention to him, and that's where we made a big mistake." 



After settling my small family at East Rockaway, Long Island, I 

 started West with George Butler and Harry Paul on the expedition of 

 1885, which had such gratifying results. In the autumn began my 

 career as a popular lecturer, my first venture in that line, at Fort Robin- 

 son, not having been followed up. I began with the Young Men's In- 

 stitute, in the Bowery of New York, an admirable place, in which 

 Cleveland Dodge was particularly interested, and I kept this up for 

 five or six years. I also took part in the University Extension work in 

 Yonkers, Tarry town and Trenton. From Trenton, I came home every 

 night and had a long wait in the station for my train, for the electric 

 lines had not been built and motor cars were not yet in existence. I 

 thought the railroad company very remiss in failing to keep an inter- 

 preter in the Trenton station. Almost every night I was called upon 

 to help some bewildered German-speaking immigrant out of trouble. 

 In every case, it required but a brief explanation to set matters straight, 

 as lack of funds was not the trouble. In 1891 I became a member of 

 the faculty of the Wagner Free Institute of Science, in Philadelphia, 



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