EDGAR ALEXANDER MEARNS RICHMOND. 653 



(March 16, 1885) to his old preceptor, Robert Donald, then at Lanes- 

 boro, Minn. : 



I informed you, I think, of my determination, you know it had been my 

 wish, to enter the Army, of my coming up before the Army medical examining 

 board and of my passing satisfactorily the examination. I did not receive my 

 commission at once but spent the summer in settling up our business affairs and 

 in preparing to go to New York for the winter. 



I stored my collection of specimens -at the American Museum of Natural His- 

 tory, N. Y., and on the first of October was called there as temporary curator of 

 Ornithology, and spent the winter. While there I labeled all of their large 

 collection of European birds, and many others from Asia and Africa, and got up 

 catalogues of all the ornithological and oological specimens in manuscripts 

 with printed headings for all items of desirable data concerning the specimens. 

 The most important thing that I accomplished there was the establishment of a 

 cabinet collection in vertebrate zoology for the use of students. 



Confirmation of this last statement is found in a recent work, 1 

 where it is stated that " the first material for study collections was 

 given by Dr. E. A. Mearns in 1882, consisting of skins and eggs of 

 North American and European birds." 



Doctor Mearns participated in the organization of the American 

 Ornithologists' Union in September, 1883, and on December 3 of that 

 year received his commission as assistant surgeon in the Army, with 

 the rank of first lieutenant. He was offered a choice of several sta- 

 tions, and selected that of Fort Verde, in central Arizona, as promis- 

 ing an exceptional field for natural history investigations. He was 

 accordingly assigned to this post, which he reached early in 1884. 

 Fort Verde, abandoned as a military station in 1891, was then a deso- 

 late arid place, but to Mearns it represented a new world, peopled 

 with strange animals and plants, all worthy of the closest study. 

 Within sight of the fort were ancient cliff dwellings, silent reminders 

 of a vanished race; and San Francisco Mountain, then practically 

 unexplored, was also visible in the distance. He set to work with his 

 customary vigor, devoting all of his leisure time to the formation of a 

 splendid collection of the animals and plants of this section of 

 Arizona. The ruins in the neighborhood were also examined in con- 

 siderable detail, excavations were made, and thousands of relics 

 rescued from oblivion. He wrote a delightful and extremely inter- 

 esting account of these explorations under the title, "Ancient Dwell- 

 ings of the Rio Verde Valley," which appeared in Popular Science 

 Monthly for October, 1890. 



During the nearly four years he was stationed at this Arizona post 

 he was attached to various expeditions, some of them peaceful ones, 

 others sent in pursuit of renegade Indians. In the letter to Mr. 

 Donald, quoted above, he wrote: 



We reached Fort Verde on March 25th, 1884, and, by a curious coincidence I 

 am just in receipt of orders to leave on that day this year as surgeon in charge 



1 The Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., its History, etc., 2d ed., 1911, 67. 



