294 LEADING AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE 



by Marsh, who during his life contributed more than a quarter 

 of a million dollars to the sole object of completing his paleon- 

 tological collections, in the acquisition of which he crossed the 

 Rocky Mountains twenty-seven times. 



It was on his perilous expedition to the Bad Lands near the 

 Black Hills in 1874 that Marsh was twice driven back by the 

 Sioux Indians, who supposed him to be searching for gold rather 

 than for bones. In endeavoring to appease the savages, he held 

 various councils with Red Cloud and other chiefs, and at last 

 gained permission to proceed with his party only by promising 

 Red Cloud to take his complaints, with samples of his rations to 

 the Great Father at Washington. The fulfilment of this promise 

 together with an exposure of the frauds that Marsh had seen prac- 

 tised upon the Indians led to his conflict with Secretary Delano 

 and the Indian Ring, in which fight this department of the Govern- 

 ment was thoroughly defeated, subsequent events substantiating 

 all the charges made by Marsh. Later, Red Cloud presented 

 his benefactor with an elegant pipe and tobacco pouch as tokens 

 of his gratitude, sending with them the complimentary message 

 that the " Bone-hunting Chief" was the only white man he had 

 seen who kept his promises. A full account of Marsh's contest 

 with the Indian Ring is embodied in A Statement of Affairs at the 

 Red Cloud Agency and Report of the Special Commission appointed, 

 to investigate the Affairs of the Red Cloud Indian Agency, 1875. 



The large series of equine mammals collected by Marsh previ- 

 ous to Huxley's memorable visit to this country in 1876, not only 

 rendered the pedigree of the Equidae more complete, but was the 

 means of convincing the British anatomist that the specimens in 

 the Peabody Museum "demonstrated the evolution of the horse 

 beyond question, and for the first time indicated the direct line 

 of descent of an existing animal." In the life and letters of his 

 father, Huxley's son tells of the visit to Yale and of the western 

 wonders stored in its natural history museum. 



After examining these collections and weighing the evidence 

 offered by the fossil remains, Huxley recast much of his New 

 York lecture which treated of the genealogy of the horse based on 



