248 Life of a Fossil Hunter 



Dr. von Zittel wrote : " I am sorry that from your 

 letter you do not consider yourself in a position to 

 work for the Munich Museum in Texas this spring. 

 I can readily understand that after your long ac- 

 tivity in scientific fields without material results you 

 are somewhat discouraged and embittered, and feel 

 that your services in this direction have not been 

 sufficiently appreciated. For my part, I have done 

 my best to give you credit for the scientific side of 

 your work, and your collections from Kansas 

 and Texas in the Munich Museum will always be 

 an everlasting memorial to the name of Charles 

 Sternberg." 



Such a letter, from a man like von Zittel, put new 

 life and courage into my veins, as a similar letter 

 from Professor Cope had once before, and made me 

 feel that a little suffering more or less mattered 

 nothing when measured with such enduring results. 

 Cope is dead and von Zittel is dead, so far as such 

 men can die, but I have preserved their letters as 

 heirlooms for my children's children; for they 

 testify that " no matter what the common herd may 

 say about me," I have accomplished the object which 

 I set before myself as a boy, and have done my 

 humble part toward building up the great science of 

 paleontology. I shall perish, but my fossils will last 

 as long as the museums that have secured them. 



But to return to the Texas Permian. I will fol- 



