BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF -TOSEPH DUNCAX PUTNAM. '^31 



serious attention, and liavino- made a drawing of its characteristic 

 anatomical parts, he sent the same to Prof. H. A. Hagen, of Cam- 

 bridge, Mass., suggesting at the same time its affinities and proper 

 place in classification. Prof. Hagen's answer promptly made, con- 

 firmed his first impressions, and from this time never losing sight of 

 the subject thus casually brought to his notice, he followed up its 

 written literature, coi-responded with foreign collectors, consulted 

 extensive libraries, bought rare l)ooks, and secured from every avail- 

 able source, including his own subsequent collections all the access- 

 ible means for illustrating this class of insects, intending eventually 

 to bring out in the Proceedings of the Davenport Academy, a mon- 

 ograph of North American Solpinjidii^. 



But now all preliminaries having been arranged, on the first day ot 

 July we left for the mountains, intending to follow on foot the track 

 being opened for the construction of a nairow-gauge railroad, up 

 Clear Creek. 



Toiling in the rear, with his collecting net, attracted by the 

 strange scenery and insects that buzzed about his path, the distance 

 between the two compani(nis contiimally widened, an<l at dusk a 

 ])oint was reached where rugged and precipitous walls hennned up 

 the way not yet penetrated by the graders; still hoping l)y following 

 the survey stakes to come into a more ojien country, and possibly a 

 settlement, night closed on us still separated. Not unaccustomed 

 to such emergencies, the senior selected his night Ijivouac whei-e 

 abundance of dry wood att'orded at least one source of (nitward com- 

 fort, as well as a hope of attracting his com}ianion, but night passed 

 without meeting, and my young associate passed his first night in 

 the mountains under the shelter of an overhanging clifi', without 

 either food or fire! After meeting the next day in the upper settle- 

 ments, which we reached by different routes, on comparing notes we 

 found that the actual distance separating us was the nearly perpen- 

 dicular mountain height of the gorge, my companion remaining at 

 the foot of the precipice, while his comrade climbed to the summit. 

 From such an unexpected test of physical endurance, 1 was well 

 satisfied that my young friend could be depended on for all that 

 was required in the way of mountain climbing. 



Needless to dwell here on the details of that gloiious sunnner in 

 tlie mountains, so copiously described in his home letters, how to- 

 gether, or separately we scaled precipices, visited the haunts of the 

 ptarmigan and the mountain sheep, enjoyed appetizing lunches on 

 alpine slopes, redolent with rainbow colored flowers, attractive alike 



