458 Memorial of George Bi^own Goode. 



Sitgreaves explored the region of the Zuili and Colorado rivers in 

 1852, and Marcy the Red River of the North. The Mexican boundary 

 sur^^ey, under Emory, was in progress from 1854 to 1856, and at the 

 same time the various Pacific railroad surveys. There was also the 

 Herndon exploration of the valley of the Amazon, and the North Pacific 

 exploring expedition under Rogers. These were the days, too, when 

 that extensive exploration of British North America was begun through 

 the cooperation of the HudvSon's Bay Company with the Smithsonian 

 Institution. 



It was the harvest time of the museums. Agassiz was building up 

 with immense rapidity his collections in Cambridge, utilizing to the 

 fullest extent the methods which he had learned in the great European 

 establishments and the public spirit and generosity of the Americans. 

 Baird was using his matchless powers of organization in equipping and 

 inspiring the officers of the various surveys and accumulating immense 

 collections to be used in the interest of the future National Museum. 



Systematic natural history advanced with rapid strides. The magnifi- 

 cent folio reports of the Wilkes expedition were now being published, 

 and some of them, particularly those by Dana on the crustaceans and the 

 zoophytes and geology, that of Gould upon the mollusks, those by Tor- 

 rey, Gray, and Eaton upon the plants, were of great importance. 



The reports of the domestic surveys contained numerous papers upon 

 systematic natural history, prepared under the direction of Baird, assisted 

 by Girard, Gill, Cassin, Suckley, L,eConte, Cooper, and others. The 

 volumes relating to the mammals and the birds, prepared by Baird' s own 

 pen, were the first exhaustive treatises upon the mammalogy and orni- 

 thology of the United States. 



The American Association was doing a great work in popular educa- 

 tion through its sj^stem of meeting each year in a different city. In 1850 

 it met in Charleston, and its entire expenses were paid by the city 

 corporation as a valid mark of public approval, while the foundation of 

 the Charleston Museum of Natural History was one of the direct results 

 of the meeting. 



In 1857 it met in Montreal, and delegates from the English scientific 

 societies were present. This was one of the earliest of those manifesta- 

 tions of international courtesy upon scientific ground of which there have 

 since been many. 



In the seventh decade, which began with threatenings of civil war, the 

 growth of science was almost arrested. A meeting of the American Asso- 

 ciation was to have been held in Nashville in 1861, but none was called. 

 In 1866, at Buffalo, its sessions were resumed with the old board of offi- 

 cers elected in i860. One of the vice-presidents, Gibbes, of South Caro- 

 lina, had not been heard from since the war began, and the Southern 

 members were all absent Many of the Northern members wrote explain- 

 ing that they could not attend this meeting because they could not afford 



