60 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 
least some of the same ground. He began to correspond with 
scientific men, sent for books, and a new world was opened to 
him. Botany, his favorite study, became more than ever a joy 
to him. He did not follow it for money or fame, never seeking 
to impress himself or his work upon others. He was one of 
Carlyle’s pattern silent men, too occupied by his work to be 
drawn aside from it by the trivialities of social life. He became 
famous with scientific men at bome and abroad, while his neigh- 
bors only knew him as the plain, honest “ Eli” and a most trusty 
citizen. Mr. Hall had good mathematical abilities, and had 
made himself master of trigonometry and surveying. He was 
elected surveyor of Menard county, for which office he was fully 
competent. He ran his “lines” well, but on such tramps plants 
father, neighbor and citizen. No labor that the comfort and — 
welfare of others required was neglected in order that his favor- 
was said of 1m that there was no one whose friends would be - 
and no one who would be less willing to go on those grounds. 
In the later years of Mr. Hall’s life, when too feeble to go 0D 
collecting tours, he turned his attention to the study of shells. — 
His collection of fresh water and land shells is probably the best 
in the State of Illinois. Some idea of the extent and value 0 
by Austin: Juncus by Englemann ; Melica, PY 
, , ? : 
Vasey; Isopyrum, Viola, Aster, Aplopap us, Heuchera, Pent’ 
temon, Dalea, Asclepias, Carum, Seseli, an Astragalus, by Gray. 
