LETTER TO OSWALD HEER. 515 



ings which are not yet brought to a conclu- 

 sion. I am aware also how wide an influence 

 I already exert upon this land of the future, 

 — an influence which gains in extent and in- 

 tensity with every year, — so that it becomes 

 very difficult for me to discern clearly where 

 I can be most useful to science. Among my 

 privileges I must not overlook that of passing 

 much of my time on the immediate sea-shore, 

 where the resources for the zoologist and em- 

 bryologist are inexhaustible. I have now a 

 house distant only a few steps from an admi- 

 rable locality for these studies, and can there- 

 fore pursue them uninterruptedly throughout 

 the whole year, instead of being limited, like 

 most naturalists, to the short summer vaca- 

 tions. It is true I miss the larger museums, 

 Hbraries, etc., as well as the stimulus to be de- 

 rived from association with a number of like- 

 minded co-workers, all striving toward the 

 same end. With every year, however, the 

 number of able and influential investigators 

 increases here, and among them are some who 

 might justly claim a prominent place any- 

 where. . . . 



Neither are means for publication lacking. 

 The larger treatises with costly illustrations ap- 

 pear in the Smithsonian Contributions, in the 



