° 1918 ] Richmond, In Memoriam: Edgar A. Meams. 9 



collected and transmitted to the U. S. National Museum. The 

 collections had been carefully made, to illustrate changes in the 

 animals and plants in the various faunal areas through which the 

 expedition passed, with the view of throwing some light on subspe- 

 cific variation in them. 



At the close of the Mexican Boundary work, Dr. Mearns was 

 ordered to duty at Fort Meyer, Va., with permission to study his 

 collections at the National Museum. In the time at his disposal 

 he made considerable progress in identifying the mammals, and 

 in discriminating the several life zones of the boundary line. In 

 addition to the faunal zones currently recognized he suggested 

 several lesser geographical areas, which he termed " differentiation 

 tracts." He had planned an elaborate report on the biology, 

 geology, etc., based on the boundary collections, and had accumu- 

 lated a vast amount of data and manuscript for this purpose, but 

 Congress withheld the sum estimated to cover the cost of printing 

 and illustrations, and the project was reluctantly given up. The 

 first part of his report on the mammals, the only one thus far pub- 

 lished, was issued in 1907, 1 and contains upwards of 500 pages, 

 with many plates and text figures. It includes much introductory 

 matter of a general nature, with an itinerary of the expedition, an 

 account of the life areas, lists of the trees, etc., of the Mexican 

 border, and is an excellent example of the careful and detailed 

 methods of its author. 



In the autumn of 1896, he devoted his vacation to field work in 

 the Catskills, and to rambles in the vicinity of his old home. A 

 paper entitled ' Notes on the Mammals of the Catskill Mountains, 

 New York, with general remarks on the Fauna and Flora of the 

 Region,' 2 was based on investigations made at this time. 



After a few months' duty at Fort Clark, Texas, in 1897-98, he was 

 commissioned brigade surgeon (later chief surgeon) of Volunteers, 

 with the rank of Major, in the Spanish-American war, serving 

 until March 22, 1899, when he was honorably discharged and 

 resumed his regular duties. His next station was Fort Adams, 

 Rhode Island, where he served during parts of 1899-1900. While 



« Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 56, Pt. 1, 1907. 



2 Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XXI, 1898, 341-360, figs. 1-6. 



