1864.] REMINISCENCES OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 347 



We reserve our remaining space for extracts from the remark- 

 able history of Dr. Hitchcock's museum ; the whole of which is 

 well worthy of being read : 



''When I came here, in 1826, a Natural History Society existed 

 among the students, which had begun to bring together specimens 

 chiefly in mineralogy, geology, and mammalogy ; but they were too 

 few to be employed in lecturing. I therefore took up the business 

 of collecting. I had, however, in previous years, obtained a few 

 hundred specimens, mostly in mineralogy and geology, and the 

 Trustees in 1826 " voted that Professor Hitchcock be requested 

 to deposit his private geological cabinet in the Cabinet of the 

 College." Previous to this time, I believe, the Natural History 

 Society had presented the whole or part of their collections ; so 

 that, so far as numbers were concerned, our cases looked quite 

 respectable. But to one acquainted with natural history, probably 

 the larger part would come under the ironical title of Jactalltes ; 

 that is, specimens to be thrown away. However they did a very 

 good service so long as no better collections were near. And it is 

 a fact that some of the ablest naturalists ^ho graduated here (ex. 

 qr. Shepard and Adams), started in these days of meagre scientific 

 illustration. Their fewness led such men to study what we had 

 with more attention, and that awakened the desire to see and 

 possess more ; and in these two facts, conjoined with good native 

 talent and scholarship, you have the elements of able naturalists. 



" In 1830 I was appointed to make a geological survey of Massa- 

 chussetts, and this opened a door for the introduction of numerous 

 specimens. The Government, indeed, directed that a collection 

 of the rocks and minerals of the State of moderate size should be 

 collected for each of the colleges. They amounted, I believe, in 

 the first survey, to about eight hundred. I also collected four 

 times as many for the State Cabinet, and nearly as many for 

 myself Having deposited the latter in the Cabinet, the Trustees, 

 feeling under obligation to Williston Seminary, or rather to its 

 founder, presented to it the collection of eight hundred speci- 

 mens. 



" Another way which has been a prolific one of increasing the 

 Cabinet in all its branches, organic and inorganic, is by securing 

 the help of the graduates of the College, especially the foreign mis- 

 sionaries. The Zoological Museum has in this way often been 

 enriched. In the AYoods Cabinet is a collection of rocks and 

 minerals chiefly from Asia, of more than twelve hundred speci- 



