NED HOLLISTER — OSGOOD 603 



We met one evening about the first of May in a railroad station in 

 Chicago where we immediately took train for the West. I can never 

 forget that first evening during which we became acquainted and 

 talked over plans for the summer. Although I had then been some 

 five or six years on the regular staff of the Biological Survey, and 

 although he half-jokingly and self-deprecatingly referred to me as 

 a " professional," we were about of an age, and the rate at which we 

 found common ground on all sorts of subjects has scarcely ever been 

 equaled in my experience. Evidently he did not find me larger nor 

 more muscular than anticipated and I particularly remember the 

 droll but emphatic way in which he expressed himself as I led the 

 way from the dining car to the comfortable smoking coach. " You're 

 the first Biological Survey man I've seen," he said, " who didn't act 

 as if he thought I was a criminal every time I lit a cigar," 



The Alaskan trip lasted five months, joint work being done mainly 

 in mountains near Eagle and along the Yukon River from Eagle to 

 Circle. Hollister also did independent work on the coast at Mitkof 

 Island and Kupreanof Island, Alaska, and at Steilacoom and San 

 Juan Island, Wash, One of the mammals obtained at the last lo- 

 cality was named for him, Peromyscus maniculatus holllsteii. 

 Throughout the trip, he impressed me more for all-around balanced 

 qualities than for outstanding ones. The broad fact about him was 

 the all-embracing character of his love of animals and nature. Down 

 to the meanest detail of work, there was nothing connected with the 

 observation and study of animals, alive or dead, which did not par- 

 take of this love. Each phase of the subject was to him only part 

 of one whole, none of which was to be slighted. The excitement of 

 the chase and the exultation of capture or discovery held great 

 charms for him, but the laborious paring of hides and other sup- 

 posed drudgery seemed to give him no less pleasure. He did such 

 things not only with good cheer but wuth an obvious enjo3anent that 

 was related not to the work itself but to its object. The finished 

 specimen was to him something to be treated almost as if sacred. I 

 have never known a man who, without being meticulous, took such 

 pride in the quality of his specimens and such care of them subse- 

 quent to preparation. He evinced the same joy and maintained sim- 

 ilar high standards in method and practice in making field notes, in 

 keeping catalogues or records, and in publishing results. 



To his qualities as a collector and observer was added a charmirwi 

 disposition in which modesty, simplicity, loyalty, and good humor 

 were the leading features. An amusing incident never escaped him 

 nor ever left his memory, so no one was long in his company without 

 being entertained by a dry comment or a humorous anecdote. As a 

 field companion, he was delightful and his equal will very rarely be 

 found. He loved human beings, as such, regardless of appearances 



