160 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1914. 
in Washington, and when he wrote his splendid monograph of the 
beaked whales, which are among the rarest objects in our collection, 
the National Museum was found to possess about one-fourth of all 
the material available, and of the rare genus Berardius it had 
nearly one-half. Besides visiting and personally inspecting the 
specimens in many other museums, he assembled an immense series 
of photographs of specimens and had at his command a vastly greater 
amount of material than any cetologist before him. Visits to the 
whale fishery in Newfoundland gave him exceptional opportunity 
for the investigation of specimens freshly caught, and the studies 
there made entered into the volume on the whalebone whales of the 
western North Atlantic compared with those of European waters, in 
which, contrary to previous deductions, the whalebone whales of 
both sides of the Atlantic were proved to be identical. In later years 
Dr. True began to give attention to the fossil whales of North 
America, regarding which he had already made some noteworthy 
discoveries. It is no exaggeration to say that Dr. True had become 
the greatest living authority on whales, and in that respect took rank 
beside Eschricht, Lilljjeborg, Van Beneden, and Flower. He died in 
the midst of his studies, surrounded by rich material offering golden 
opportunities for the future. 
