24 Life of a Fossil Hunter 



by him, were afterwards purchased by R. D. Lacoe, 

 of Pittston, Pa., and presented to the Museum. 



So feeble had the great botanist become in these 

 last years of his life, that friends passed before his 

 failing eyes the trays containing these great collec- 

 tions. 



In my estimation, America can show no life more 

 unselfishly devoted to science than that of Lesque- 

 reux, probably the most scholarly and conscientious 

 botanist of his day. He once wrote me that he re- 

 ceived a salary of five dollars a day from the U. S. 

 Geological Survey, and out of this he had to pay his 

 artist. He labored with unfailing enthusiasm to 

 complete his monumental work, " The Flora of the 

 Dakota Group," but by the irony of fate, he never 

 saw his beloved book in print. It was published by 

 the Government five years after his death, under 

 the able editorship of Dr. F. H. Knowlton. 



He passed away at the age of eighty-three. 



" Born in the heart of Switzerland's mountain 

 grandeur," he once said, " my associations have 

 been almost all of a scientific nature. I have lived 

 with nature, the rocks, the trees, the flowers. They 

 know me, I know them. Everything else is dead to 

 me." 



It was my good fortune to be in constant corre- 

 spondence with Lesquereux, and his letters, which I 

 need not say I prize highly, have done more, per- 



