2 JOl RNAL OK MAINE i >K M Tliol.ni ,K'.\I. SOCIETY. 



his religious ideals were maintained throughout his life. December 

 24, 1X62, he was married to Miss Emeline Freeman Wheeler, of 

 Hampden, who survives him, together with four daughters and a ' 

 son. 



Turning through force of circumstances from his early ambi- 

 tions, he entered the business career of a fur buyer and became re- 

 markably expert in the judgment of the quality of pelts. In enter- 

 ing this career, his father's interests and acquaintance throughout 

 the wilderness afforded rare opportunities which he turned to most 

 excellent results. Fortified by the clean character built up in 

 youth, he acquired wide, close and sympathetic acquaintance with 

 the men of the wilderness. Many of these were Indians, and, enter- 

 ing heartily into their honorable pursuits, he became their rival in 

 canoeing, trapping and general woodcraft, and an authority upon 

 their language and history. 



Respecting his life as a naturalist, the following sketch is fur- 

 nished by his daughter, Mrs. Fanny Hardy Eckstorm, well known 

 as a writer of articles and books on natural history. 



"My father began being a naturalist very young. When about 

 nine years old he tried to learn what he could about the more bril- 

 liantly-colored birds. In 1844, when he was in his twelfth year. 

 Count Karl Luther, a Prussian nobleman traveling in America for 

 sport and pleasure, spent some time in this vicinity and noticed the 

 boy's interest in natural history. The Count gave such instruction 

 as he was able and left with him a recipe for mummifying small 

 birds, which we still have. In this way he preserved a few speci- 

 mens ; but he had neither books nor teachers. 



"He never lost his childish desire to be a naturalist nor found 

 any opportunity to learn what he wished to know, until in 1861 he 

 had a chance to go upon the Maine State Scientific Survey. 

 Despite two bulky volumes of reports, the history of this expedition 

 never has been fully written ; it was one of the things which 'are 

 not what they seem.' On his part, though often urged to write his 

 account of the survey as a burlesque, my father used to smile and 

 say nothing. My father was given the position of assistant natural- 



