CHAPTER III. 



SCIENTIFIC RESEARCHES. — RETIREMENT FROM BUSINESS. — SECOND 



VISIT TO EUROPE. 



Mr. Lea returned from Europe iu ISTovember, 1832, Laving enjoyed an 

 almost unequaled opportunity of meeting tlie distinguished scientilic 

 sarants of the times, men whose names will be honored as long as sci- 

 entific research shall endure. He had found that the few papers which 

 lie had published on American mollusca had created tin interest far 

 beyond his expectation, and that the doors of the naturalists were open 

 to him wherever he wished to enter. He was earnestly solicited to " go 

 on with the investigations commenced," being told that "no naturalist 

 in America or Europe had the advantages possessed by him ; that they 

 Avere unrivaled." " The admirable fidelity of all your descriptions so evi- 

 dently from life and so full of acute discrimination." But to his great 

 astonishment he found that advantage had been taken of his absence, 

 which had prevented him from securing his share of the collection of 

 Tertiary fossils of Alabama, made by Dr. Gates, who was sent to the 

 South b5^snbscriptions made in Philadelphia and New York; and that 

 the whole of the Philadelphia quota had been placed in the hands of 

 Mr. Conrad, who was not one of the subsciibers. IMr. Lea was not 

 made acquainted with the fact until he saw the first uumbersofMr. 

 Conrad's published descriptions. 



In 18U9, and for several years subsequently, Mr. Lea had received all 

 these species from his friend, Judge Tait, ex-governor of Alabama, but 

 at that time he was too much occupied with his elaborate work upon 

 the TlnionWlcv to undertake the descri])tion of them. When, however, 

 he discovered that his own property liad been put into IMr. Conrad's 

 hands, he went vigorously to work on those already m iiis possession, 

 and on the 27tli of August, 1833, presented his paper complete to the 

 Academy of I^atural Sciences of Philadelphia. It contained two hun- 

 dred and twenty-one species, and the figures were so admirably exe- 

 cuted by Mr. Drayton, the artist, that they were said to be almost equal 

 to the originals. In regard to this work, Mr. Murchison said, in a let- 

 let to the author acknowledging its receipt : 



Accept my very best thanks for your luuidsome " Contributions to Geolojjy." If 

 every good coueliologist like yourself would thus vigorously set to work, we might 

 in some few years have collected full material for our su])er.structure. I like the 

 coloring of your fossil plates very much, aud altogether the work has quite the stamp 

 of beiug issued by one of the best workshops of Europe. 



