£00 DAVENPORT ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES. 



cannot complain. Unexpected successes have more than counterbal- 

 anced all our disappointments. 



Of our dissensions and lukewarmness where enthusiasm and unchang- 

 ing faithfulness were expected, I do not like to say much, but so much I 

 may and ought to say— they have been less, and have been less bitter, less 

 injurious, less discreditable, less lasting, and of less importance than in 

 any institution of any kind whatsoever with whose internal history I 

 have been acquainted. May they be even still less in the future. 



Of the causes or circumstances which have contributed to such meas- 

 ure of success as has been achieved thus far, I think we may say that : 



First. Thesociety has been what may be termed fortunate. We found 

 ourselves in the midst of mines of archaeological wealth, of which we were 

 quite unaware, and were fortunate enough to secure for our labors, and 

 especially through the true scientific and liberal public spirit of Rev. Mr. 

 Gass, the most unique and valuable relics of the mound age in Amerioa. 

 Within two miles of the rooms we occupied was the richest group of 

 mounds yet found, and Mound No. 3 of the Cook Farm group has proved 

 to be, without exception, the richest mound ever yet explored. 



Second. The hopes of the founders have be^n fully realized in the co- 

 operation and disinterested labors of new workers, and work is here, as 

 elsewhere, the secret of success. 



Third. The wise determination to commence the publication of Pro- 

 ceedings at the earliest practicable date, thus bringing the Association 

 into favorable notice, and giving it strength at home and abroad. Our 

 library is becoming valuable and is rapidly increasing, and this is due 

 largely and directly to the returns made for our own publications, and to 

 the standing the Academy takes as a publishing society. The Museum 

 is also largely increased from the same cause. A letter received this very 

 day is a good illustration of this, and similar cases are now by no means 

 uncommon. The liberal contributions we receive for building and fur- 

 nishing are also largely influenced by the same considerations. It must 

 be borne iu mind that the publication could not have been carried through 

 but by the noble work of the Ladies' Centennial Society, whose labors in 

 the cause have been commended and held up as a bright example, by 

 those interested in the cause of scientific progress, far and near, and our 

 " somewhat ambitious title" has been placed on the exchange list of 

 many first-class scientific institutions, American and foreign, whose 

 publications are very valuable, and has brought the name of our city to 

 the favorable notice of many communities whom otherwise it had never 

 reached. 



But, Fourth. The chief element of success, and that which made al 

 the rest possible, was, as it seems to me, our remarkably favorable finan- 

 cial condition at the beginning. We were happily entirely free from the 

 incubus of money to be invested or expended, and thus escaped the rock 

 on which so many have split in the attempt to build up scientific societies 

 and museums. We had not a dollar beyond the small initiation fee, 

 established at first and still unchanged ; we were compelled to depend 



