172 WOOD NOTES WILD. 



LAST DAYS OF THE AUTHOR. Contin. 



a severe cold contracted in Boston. Pneumonia was subse- 

 quently developed, and after a few days of suffering he passed 

 peacefully away. During his half-conscious hours of illness 

 snatches of bird-song were often upon his lips. You will 

 find, doubtless, a sad pleasure in completing for his sake the 

 unfinished little book which so much interested him in his 

 last days. I have been assured that when the work on the 

 phonograph is published Mr. Cheney's services will receive 

 ample acknowledgment. His often expressed wish, that the close 

 of life here might find him at work with unimpaired mental 

 vigor, has been fulfilled. An adorer of Nature, his last labor 

 was devoted to interpreting the songs of her children." 



Notations from the Phonograph. 



The following letter from Dr. Fewkes, of the Boston Society 

 of Natural History, gives a full statement of Mr. Cheney's last 

 service in the interpretation of Nature-music : 



"When I returned from Calais with phonographic cylinders 

 on which were recorded the music of the Passamaquoddies, 

 your father, who had never heard these Indians sing, wrote 

 out from the cylinders the music, and thus made it possible 

 for me to demonstrate that the phonograph can be profitably 

 employed in the study of Indian melodies. In publishing the 

 results of my experiments I have already referred to his help, 

 and as you have shown an interest in the matter I am glad to 

 be able to add a word or two to what I have already written. 



" Some of the music of the Passamaquoddies which I obtained 

 is undoubtedly aboriginal, and as such is very difficult to repre- 

 sent by our methods of musical notation. Not being a musical 

 person myself, I left the writing out of the music to him. How 

 well he did it others must judge ; but I have every reason to 

 believe that, as the idea of collecting Indian music by means 

 of the phonograph was original with me, he was the first one, 



