The Days of a Man 1:1870 



But as befits a new institution, most of the pro- 

 fessors were active young men chosen with rare 

 judgment by our youthful president. Notable 

 among them were two of Agassiz's students at 

 ffartt Harvard, C. Frederick Hartt in Geology and Burt 

 G. Wilder in Zoology. Hartt was a most interesting 

 man, with rare quality as a classroom lecturer and 

 unusual skill in gaining the trust and affection of 

 Suney students. About 1870, following Agassiz's expe- 

 f dition to Brazil, Hartt was asked to take charge of 

 Brazil tne g eo i O gi ca i survey of that country, a work upon 

 which he entered with enthusiasm. Returning to 

 Ithaca, he brought back many fossils and other 

 materials for study; on some undescribed Brazilian 

 brachiopods which we made out to be of the Helder- 

 berg period, I got my first experience in Paleontology. 

 Then from among his Cornell students he proceeded 

 to organize an eager staff: Branner, Rathbun, and 

 Orville A. Derby for Geology; Herbert H. Smith for 

 Geography; and myself for Botany. 



Leaving again for South America, accompanied by 

 the others, he arranged for me to follow after gradu- 

 ation. I never went, however, as his death occurred 

 not long after. Branner then succeeded him as 

 geologist of Brazil for about seven years, coming 

 back to graduate at Cornell and to take part in the 

 geological survey of Pennsylvania. From that 

 service he was called by me in 1885 to the chair of 

 Geology at the University of Indiana. Rathbun 

 also spent several years in Brazil; on his return to 

 this country he first entered the United States 

 Fish Commission, but was afterward made assistant 

 secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and director 

 of the United States National Museum, a joint 



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