THE NAUTILUS. 71 



independence for that territory when hostilities broke out. Stearns 

 took the responsibility of making his paper an enthusiastic advocate 

 of the Union cause, and to this call and the eloquence of Thomas 

 Starr King, old Californians believed, the decision of the people to 

 stand by the Union in that struggle was due in no small degree. 

 Through the influence of Justice Field, Stearns was appointed 

 deputy clerk of the Supreme Court of California in 1862, a post 

 which he resigned in the following year to accept the secretaryship 

 of the State Board of Harbor Commissioners, which he was obliged 

 to resign some years later on account of ill health. Coming to the 

 East, he made one of a party, comprising beside himself the late Dr. 

 William Stimpson and Col. Ezekiel Jewett, for the exploration of 

 the invertebrate fauna of southwestern Florida, during which large 

 collections were made for the Smithsonian Institution. He returned 

 to California, and in 1874 was elected secretary to the University of 

 California, being the business executive of that institution under the 

 presidency of the late Dr. Daniel C. Gilman. He served in this 

 capacity for eight years with great approval, and when ill health 

 again obliged him to retire from service, the University, as expressive 

 of their sense of his services to the cause of education in California 

 and in recognition of his scientific attainments, conferred upon him 

 the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Returning to the East aftisr 

 the death of Mrs. Stearns, he was engaged in researches for the U. S.- 

 Fish Commission in 1882, was appointed paleontologist to the U. S. 

 Geological Survey by Major Powell in 1884, and assistant curator 

 of moUusks in the National Museum by Professor Baird. His col- 

 lection of mollusca was acquired by the Museum. Age and infirmity 

 obliged him to return to the more genial climate of California in 

 1892, where he settled in Los Angeles, continuing, as his strength 

 permitted, his researches into the malacology of the Pacific coast. 

 He married, March 28, 1850, Mary Anne Libby, daughter of Oliver 

 Libby of Boston, and is survived by a daughter. 



Dr. Stearns was an earnest student of mollusks from boyhood; his 

 early experience led him to interest himself in horticulture and land- 

 scape gardening, and his ability in this line is attested by the beauty 

 of the University grounds at Berkeley, which were developed under 

 his superintendence. His knowledge of the Pacific coast mollusca 

 was profound, and a long list of papers on this topic and on the 

 shells of Florida was the result. He also contributed many papers- 



