18 ^ CENTURY OF PROGRESS IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES 



correspondent at Cape San Lucas. A hearing was effected with Emperor 

 Maximilian and Empress Carlotta but the collapse of their regime brought 

 an early end to Grayson's support for a projected Birds of Western 3Iexico. 

 It was while on an expedition to Isabel Islands for nesting sea birds that he 

 was taken sick with the "coast fever." The journal Condor has been currently 

 publishing his beautiful drawings of Mexican birds. Grayson's notes for many 

 of these will be found in Bryant's article published in Zoe for April, 1891. 



Robert Edward Carter Stearns came to San Francisco in 1858 at the age 

 of thirty-one to become a partner in the large printing establishment of his 

 brother-in-law. This firm published the influential Pacific Methodist and, in 

 the absence of the editor, Stearns took over. This journal was instrumental in 

 keeping California in the Union during the Civil War. Always interested in 

 zoology, Stearns made a trip to Florida in 1863 for invertebrate collections 

 for the Smithsonian Institution. In the Proceedings of the Academy for 1868 

 Stearns treated the mollusks of Bolinas Bay. The University of California 

 made important advances under President Gilman, and during this period 

 Stearns served as secretary to the University, beginning in 1874. He launched 

 a plan for developing the plantings on the campus in 1882 which was carried 

 forward by Professor Greene when he came in 1885. In turn Stearns was 

 U. S. Fish Commissioner, paleontologist under John Wesley Powell, and assist- 

 ant curator of mollusks under S. F. Baird at the Smithsonian. Stearns often 

 contributed articles on marine life to Charles Russell Orcutt's West American 

 Scieiitist, as well as to Brandegee's Zoe. Through the years away from Cali- 

 fornia Stearns kept in touch with his friends Trask, Kellogg, Harford, Dr. 

 Wesley Newcomb, and others at the Academy. 



Particularly interesting was Dr. Newcomb 's cabinet of shells. Josiah 

 Whitney remarked in a letter to his brother Will on June 2, 1862, that he had 

 examined Newcomb's "superb collection of shells — one of the best in the coun- 

 try, especially in the department of land shells. He has in all between 10,000 

 and 11,000 species." Stearns and Newcomb were brought into close friendship 

 by their common interest in conchology and it was a bitter loss to Stearns on 

 his return to California in 1892, to learn of Newcomb's death. Newcomb had 

 been a practicing physician in the Hawaiian Islands for five years and had 

 become an authority on the land shells of the islands. 



It was in 1859 that Dr. Veatch set out for Cedros Island to verify the 

 rumors of mineral wealth there. Whalers, seal hunters, and fishermen visited 

 Sebastian Viscaino Bay and brought out wealth in furs and oil, but few 

 persons paid much attention to the volcanic soil itself. Since there was a high 

 point on the island which might yield plants characteristic of northern lati- 

 tudes. Dr. Veatch was eager to examine its flora. He brought back only about 

 two dozen specimens for Dr. Kellogg to study, but they proved almost with- 

 out exception to be undescribed! Of course one of them became Veatchia! 



In 1859 Louis Agassiz' son, Alexander Agassiz, twenty-four, came to San 

 Francisco to take a position with the Coast Survey a§ engineer to survey the 

 Gulf of Georgia and was assigned to the Fauntleroy. Returning to the city, 

 Agassiz applied himself to the medusae and viviparous "perch" (Embiotocidae) 

 of San Francisco harbor, making drawings and notes for his father. Alexander 

 Agassiz later invested over a million dollars, made in the Calumet and Hecla 



