CHAPTER TWELVE 



On our return from Switzerland to Paris in Sep- Destmc- 

 tember I learned with dismay that ''Owen Hall," "°" °/ 

 the old science building at the University of In- hIi! 

 diana, had been struck by lightning and burned 

 with nearly all its contents,^ including my own 

 costly library and collections, besides the manu- 

 script of a considerable volume by "Jordan and 

 Gilbert" on the fishes of the West Coast of Mexico 

 and Panama. With the book had also gone the 

 material on which it was based, most of it not to be 

 restored until the later expeditions of myself to 

 Mazatlan in 1895, and of Gilbert and Starks to 

 Panama in 1903. This experience taught me a 

 lesson, which was to publish all new matter at once, 

 leaving its coordination for a later period. 



On hearing of my losses, and forestalling the re- Gathering 



a new 



ceipt of the insurance money — ^7000 — I at once 

 began to restore the library. I then found, like so 

 many naturalists before me, that the open-air stalls 

 along the left bank of the Seine were a rich mine of 

 second-hand books. Later I secured a large part 

 of the library of the distinguished naturalist-phi- 

 losopher, Alphonse Milne-Edwards, and in time 



* The greater part of the Owen collection of fossils (being on the first floor) 

 was saved though very much mixed up, specimens having tragically wandered 

 from their labels. This confusion was finally adjusted by Dr. Marcou, who 

 came from the United States National Museum for that purpose, a series of 

 duplicates being then transferred to Washington in return for the great service 

 rendered. 



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