OTHNIEL CHARLES MARSH 289 



tology of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, a third scientific excur- 

 sion to these provinces having been made in 1857, in company with 

 three classmates (Abernethy, Clay, and Post). 



In 1858, he again devoted the summer to collecting, this time in 

 New York State; and in the following long vacation, when a 

 junior, made his fourth trip to Nova Scotia, Post again accompany- 

 ing him. A fifth expedition to this peninsula took place in 1860, 

 after graduation, and like those preceding it resulted in valuable 

 additions to his scientific wealth. 



At the end of his collegiate course he ranked eighth in a class 

 of one hundred and nine members, the largest and one of the ablest 

 classes that had ever been graduated at Yale. He was given a 

 high oration appointment and his attainments in classics were such 

 as to entitle him to the Berkeley Scholarship, other honors coming 

 in the guise of the Latin prize and an election to Phi Beta Kappa. 



In accordance with the terms on which the income of the 

 Berkeley Scholarship is granted, Marsh remained two years 

 longer at Yale as scholar of the house, studying mineralogy, 

 geology, and chemistry at the Sheffield Scientific School. This 

 graduate work led to the degree of M.A., conferred by Yale in 

 1862. When the Civil War broke out, Marsh was offered a major's 

 commission in a Connecticut regiment, but defective eyesight 

 obliged him to decline this military honor. During the following 

 summer occurred his final trip to Nova Scotia, where he explored 

 the gold fields, then newly discovered. His observations were 

 apparently the earliest published on the subject and were embodied 

 in his initial scientific paper: " The Gold of Nova Scotia " (Amer. 

 Jour. Sci., Nov., 1861). Two additional contributions to mineral- 

 ogy were subsequently published, but after 1867 his active interest 

 in minerals ceased. 



The year 1862 witnessed the publication of an elaborate and 

 detailed description of the enaliosaurian vertebrae found in Nova 

 Scotia in 1855, the only specimens of the kind ever discovered. 

 Previous to the appearance of this article, the fossil had been 

 brought to the attention of the elder Agassiz, who at once recog- 

 nized its value and importance, as shown by his letter to Professor 



