THE MUSEUM HIS HEADQUARTERS 41 



no mere holiday matter, as shown by the following ex- 

 tract from a letter to a colleague contemplating a little 

 trip to those regions : — 



" The Indians are not at peace, and it is death to any 

 small party in the present state of Indian warfare to 

 attempt such a thing. I will give you an example : Two 

 years ago an expedition was fitted out by the Govern- 

 ment (5000 men) to drive away the Indians from that 

 very region. The General in command offered me all 

 sorts of assistance to transport collections (six wagons 

 of four horses) if I would join him. Father's ill health 

 made it impossible for me to leave Cambridge, but the 

 General said he would get all the fossils he could and 

 devote that amount of transportation to it. I of course 

 expected great things, and on the return of the expedi- 

 tion he wrote me that it was out of the question to allow 

 small parties of twenty or thirty men even to go away 

 from the main body, and that he had lost on one occa- 

 sion almost the whole of a collecting party, and that he 

 could not allow others to wander off again. So I got 

 nothing and probably would have left my own bones 

 there to be picked up by some future Geologist and 

 described as the ancient man of Nebraska. Several doc- 

 tors accompanying army trains while passing through 

 these regions have lost their lives ; and we must wait 

 patiently till the Indians are driven further West to 

 undertake such an expedition. This is going on at such 

 a rapid rate that I hope in the course of a few years to 

 go there and pass a summer and thus accomplish one 

 of my pet plans, which has been to do just what you 

 suggest." 



