Sciences 



T'he Days of a Man Dsso 



Academy edge of " Chinatown." Dr. George Davidson, an 

 eminent civil engineer and geographer, long head 

 of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, 

 was then president; the curator of fishes, WiUiam 

 Neale Lockington, an EngHsh naturahst, gave us 

 material assistance. And in 1879 Lockington dedi- 

 cated to me Eopsettajordani, the first fish ever named 

 in my honor. This is the flounder called "English 

 Sole" by the local fishermen, a toothsome creature 

 resembling the true sole of Europe — Solea solea — ■ 

 in flavor, but in no other respect, — not being a 

 sole at all, and not English either. Two other 

 self-sacrificing volunteers busy in the academy for 

 pure love of the work were Dr. A. Kellogg, the 

 botanist, and W. G. W. Harford, the zoologist, 

 with both of whom we had frequent relations. 

 But the ablest of this group, Dr. John G. Cooper, 

 the ornithologist, had already retired from technical 

 work. 



In the early '8o's the city by the Golden Gate ^ 

 was still a merry community where Law and Order 

 were sometimes subordinated to designs of a more 

 personal character. At the time of our visit the 

 mayor, a prominent clergyman, was also a leading 

 politician, and therefore subject to blackmail, an 

 activity not yet disentangled from reform. Both 

 reform and blackmail had their seat in newspaper 

 ofiices. Editors were accordingly fair game to ag- 

 " James gtievcd poHtical operators. "James King of Wil- 

 wmiai" ^i^"^/' 3s he signed himself, the fearless editor 

 of the Bulletin, had been shot by a gambler not 



* Serene, indifferent of Fate, 

 She sits beside the Golden Gate. 



BRET HARTE 



C 218 2 



