548 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



he became interested in collecting fossils and minerals. A few- 

 months afterward he met Colonel E. Jewett, geologist, paleontolo- 

 gist, and conchologist, from whom he borrowed books and received 

 many suggestions, and through whose influence he became a student 

 with method. Geological collecting and reading were continued 

 during the remainder of his school life, and other scientific studies 

 were also taken up. For two winters he devoted much time to optics 

 and astronomy, and incidentally made large collections of insects 

 and birds' eggs. 



During the summer of 1867 a drift bowlder, accidentally broken 

 by his buggy wheel, revealed to him fossil forms so different from 

 those of the neighboring Trenton faunas that his interest was greatly 

 excited, and in seeking to learn their origin and relations he was led 

 to examine the literature of the pre-Silurian fossiliferous formations. 

 He soon discovered that relatively little was known of them, and 

 also that there was much confusion in the classification. It became 

 his ambition to make a thorough investigation of all the pre-Trenton 

 sedimentary formations and faunas in their geological relations, and 

 in their relations to the development of life and the evolution of the 

 North American continent, and this was later taken up as his life 

 work in geology. His range of observation was also enlarged by ex- 

 cursions in Herkimer and Oneida Counties, where he met examples 

 of Archaean and Glacial as well as Palaeozoic formations. 



In 1871 business took him to Indianapolis, where his scientific 

 tendencies were further stimulated by Prof. E. T. Cox, who was 

 then making a geological survey of the Indiana coal fields. The time 

 now arrived when it seemed necessary to choose between a business 

 life and a life of research. A partnership was offered him on favor- 

 able terms, and if he accepted its responsibilities little time would 

 remain for study and investigation. If, on the other hand, he de- 

 voted his life to science, it was important that he secure more time 

 for its prosecution than was consistent with his present business en- 

 gagements. Deciding in favor of scientific work, he left Indiana 

 and returned to the collection and study of Trenton fossils in New 

 York. 



"While a schoolboy he had spent summer vacations on a farm near 

 Trenton Palis, a region of great geological interest and peculiarly 

 attractive as a collecting ground. On determining to follow a sci- 

 entific life he returned to Trenton Falls and established himself on 

 the farm of William P. Rust, where he arranged to do a certain 

 amount of farm work, reserving the remainder of his time for his 

 chosen studies. Here he remained five years, gathering a rich collec- 

 tion of local fossils, beginning their systematic study, and enlarging 

 his horizon by extensive excursions on foot during the spring and fall. 



