THE MUSEUM. 



199 



mentary work, has also a deserved 

 popularity. These books, with his 

 "Manual of Geology" and "Text Book 

 of Geology," are recognized as stand- 

 ard throughout the world, and are used 

 as text books and works of reference 

 wherever the science of which they 

 treat are taught in the English lan- 

 guage. His writings on the coral is- 

 lands include "Coral Reefs and Is- 

 lands" (1853) and a second edition of 

 that book which was published in 1872 

 under the title of "Coral Reefs and Is- 

 lands." His separate papers include 

 hundreds of titles. Many honors were 

 paid to Mr. Dana. 



He received the degrees of Ph. D. 

 and L. L. D. The Geographical So- 

 ciety of London conferred on him its 

 Wollaston medal in 1872, and in 1877 

 he received the Copley gold medal 

 from the Royal Society of London. 

 He was also a member of the chief 

 scientific societies of America and 

 Europe. Prof. Dana retired from ac- 

 tive work at Yale two years ago, but 

 has given private lectures and instruc- 

 tions at his home and gave invaluable 

 advice on the subject of geological and 

 zoological matters in the Peabody Mu- 

 seum. — Scioitific A merican. 



Taking of the Eggs of the Golden 

 Eagle. 



Being anxious to secure a set of 

 eggs of the Golden Eagle for an East- 

 ern friend who greatly desired them, 

 I started on the 23d of last month, 

 with horse and light "buckboard" for 

 a drive of 16 miles, to a canon near 

 the head of the Gunnison river, where 

 for the past 1 5 years I had noticed 

 a pair of these Eagles had nested in 

 the same place — a ledge on the face 



of the cliff, about 200 feet high — the 

 nest being two-thirds of the way up. 

 I took my granddaughter along with 

 me, she being as interested in all such 

 things as myself — and I may as well 

 mention right here and be done with 

 it that I am a woman 64 years 

 "young" as Dr. Holmes once said of 

 Julia Ward Howe — and enjoy out- 

 door pursuits to the full extent of my 

 strength. We reached the Canon at 

 noon, fed the horse, luncheoned our- 

 selves, then climbing the opposite hill, 

 we, with the aid of a field glass, found 

 that the nest was in good repair, and 

 the old folks at home even though 

 there was still considerable snow in 

 the gulches all around. We at once 

 started back to town intending to find 

 a man with whom we had made ar- 

 rangements to scale the cliff for us, 

 supposing we found the nest occupied. 

 We saw him and agreed to meet in 

 the Canon at 10 a. m. the next day 

 and did so. Then we took time to^ 

 discuss the situation, as seated on the 

 bank, close to the rushing, foaming, 

 beautiful river, we cast dubious glances 

 at the cliff, which I must confess 

 wore a very forbidding aspect, to any- 

 thing less than a bird or an angel, 

 neither of which we happened to be. 

 However we were there on business 

 bent and we determined to do and 

 dare — that is we two would do the 

 looking on and the man would do the 

 'dare' part of it — so with a caution 

 from us not to fall, or if he did, not to 

 break the eggs, he started for the cliff. 

 He attempted to climb straight up, 

 but finding that impossible he went 

 quite a distance beyond and began the 

 ascent in a zig-zag course along the 

 face of the cliff, each step taking him 

 a little nearer the object in view. It 



