1864.] REMINISCENCES OF A3IHERST COLLEGE. 349 



liberality T attribute my success in filling up the present large 

 cabinet. For so his^h a standard had imitators. Hon. Duvid 

 Sears soon added another $500 ; Gerard Hallock followed with 

 $250, Hon. E. P. Prentice with $150, and several other gentle- 

 men witli $100 each. So that I went to the auction with nearly 

 $2,000 in my pocket. Moreover the stream of benevolence which 

 had thus been diverted into this channel did not cease to flow with 

 the Marsh sale; but almost to the present day new and liberal 

 increments have continued to be made to the funds in my hands 

 chiefly devoted to footmarks ; so that they have risen to $3,800. 

 Among the donors was the widow of Hon. Abbott Lawrence, 

 who sent me $300, although I suggested as a maximum 

 only $100. Had Mr. Tappan headed the subscription with $50, 

 — and I could not reasonably have expected more, — prcbably I 

 should have been compelled to see it close at $500, and the Ich- 

 nological Cabinet would have been a meagre affair comj)ared with 

 what it is now. 



" When I reached Greenfield to attend the auction in September, 

 1 853, 1 found several naturalists there from Boston with pockets well 

 lined, who came with the intention — as they had a right to do — 

 to take the whole of Mr, Marsh's collection for the Boston Society 

 of Natural History. I told them that there were many duplicates 

 in the collection, enough if divided to supply both the College and 

 their Society. But if they insisted upon monopolizing the whole, I 

 had made up my mind, having $2,000 on hand, to be very benevolent 

 towards the widow by compelling them to pay very liberal prices. 

 They seemed to feel the reasonableness of my suggestions, and 

 they found as I stated that there were enough specimens for us 

 both. My bill went as high as $700, and theirs higher. 



" Since this auction I have continued to lay out large sums in 

 the purchase of footmarks. To Koswell Field, who lives on the 

 most remarkable known locality, and has disinterred more tracks 

 than any other man, I have paid not far from $4,000. His 

 prices have indeed been generally high, but when the specimen 

 was unique, I must give him what he asked, or leave it for some 

 one else ; and Mr. Field has, in at least two cases, presented 

 specimens to the Cabinet which I have estimated at $300. 



" To persons not familiar with the value of natural history speci- 

 mens, the idea of giving §^150 for a broken slab of stone a few 

 feet square — I have several specimens that cost me that sum — 

 seems extravagance and folly. I may mention an anecdote in 



