160 EEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM^ 1914. 



in Washington, and wlien he wrote his splendid monograph of the 

 beaked whales, which are among the rarest objects in our collection, 

 the National Museum was found to possess about one-fourth of all 

 the material available, and of the rare genus Berm^dius it had 

 nearly one-half. Besides visiting and personally inspecting the 

 specimens in many other museiuns, he assembled an immense series 

 of photographs of specimens and had at his command a vastly greater 

 amount of material than any cetologist before him. Visits to the 

 whale fishery in Newfoundland gave him exceptional opportunity 

 for the investigation of specimens freshly caught, and the studies 

 there made entered into the volume on the whalebone whales of the 

 western North Atlantic compared with those of European waters, in 

 which, contrary to previous deductions, the whalebone whales of 

 both sides of the Atlantic were proved to be identical. In later years 

 Dr. True began to give attention to the fossil whales of North 

 America, regarding which he had already made some noteworthy 

 discoveries. It is no exaggeration to say that Dr. True had become 

 the greatest living authority on whales, and in that respect took rank 

 beside Eschricht, Lilljeborg, Van Beneden, and Flower. He died in 

 the midst of his studies, surrounded by rich material offering golden 

 opportunities for the future. 



