137 



Academy's rooms in August with a description of the 

 character of the collections destroyed, read the following 

 abstracts from letters which had been received : — 



Chicago, Oct. 10, 1871. 

 "Among the other buildings involved, was the Chicago Academy of 

 Sciences. It was considered fire-proof; but, in the fiery furnace, its 

 iron shutters warped like pasteboard, and let in the devouring ele- 

 ment, and a precious morsel it lapped up. There were the greater 

 portion of the invertebrata collected by numerous explorers and in 

 distant oceans, originally deposited in the Smithsonian Institution, 

 but transferred here for especial study and description by Dr. Stimp- 

 son; the collection of mammals and birds made by Dr. Vaille, which 

 cost him years of labor and travel; two skeletons of the masto- 

 don ; the collections of Kennicott in the Arctic region ; of Stimpson 

 on the Florida reefs and the Gulf Coast; the Cooper collection of 

 shells, purchased by George Walker; an interesting series of imple- 

 ments in pottery and lava — the work of a prehistoric race — exhumed 

 at San Jose, Mexico, presented by J. Y. Scammon; a large collec- 

 tion of minerals, rich in crystalline forms, which was secured through 

 the exertions of Mr. E. S. Chesboro; an extensive suite of the coals 

 and iron ores of the Northwest, and other objects of natural history. 

 The Academy had become the resort for Scientific men desirous of 

 studying not only the natural history of the Northwest, but of the 

 whole country. Dr. Stimpson's MSS. relating to the invertebrates 

 collected on the Japan Expedition, illustrated by numerous drawings 

 — the labor of years, and ready for publication — were also consumed. 

 But a short time ago Mr. J Gwyu Jeffreys spent several days in exam- 

 ining our collections in reference to deep sea dredgings. But all are 

 gone. The patrons through whose munificence the Academy was 

 built up have shared in the general calamity. Many of the specimens 

 cannot be replaced; but when the Academy shall arise like a Phoenix 

 from its ashes is a matter of doubt. The present is not a time for 

 consultation while the embers are yet alive, and while the smoke is 

 yet ascending." — J. W. Foster. 



Chicago, Oct. 12. 

 " Please stop the sale of the books and papers in the agency. We 

 have not a copy left of any of them. The Academy building and 

 everything in it was utterly destroyed — not a scrap of paper or a 

 specimen saved. My own books, collections, MSS. and drawings — 

 twenty years' work all gone ! " — Wm. Stimpson. 



Mr. Putnam then offered the following resolutions, 

 Esskx Inst. Bulletin. iii 18 



