526 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1904. 



and in 1861 he removed to what is now Kansas City, Kansas, where he 

 engaged in teaching. Such a life would now be considered as little 

 fitting a man for the profession of geology, yet in 1864, having by 

 invitation delivered a course of lectures before the Kansas legislature 

 upon the geological resources of the State, he was unanimously elected 

 State geologist, a position which he, however, filled for but a single 

 3 7 ear, resigning to accept the professorship in natural history in the 

 Agricultural College at Manhattan, where he remained until 1873. 

 His resignation from this last position is stated to have been caused 

 by disgust aroused at the political conditions in which the institution 

 became involved and the assumption of its presidency b}^ a well-known 

 politician, with no qualifications whatever for the position. 



Although by profession a lawyer, Mudge is stated to have been 

 throughout his whole life deeply interested in natural sciences, and 

 while in Lynn to have taken an active part in the organization of the 

 Lynn Natural History Society. In Kansas his scientific work was 

 largely in the line of exploration. 



Arduous, intrepid, willingly undergoing hardships and dangers for the sake of 

 science, he explored a very large part of Kansas when explorations meant real 

 dangers and hardships of the most pronounced kind. As early as 1870 he made 

 explorations in the extreme western part of the State in the study of its geology and 

 paleontology, and for years afterwards nearly every summer found him in the midst 

 of the Indian country, usually wholly without protection from the danger of hostile 

 Indians, save such as his own rifle and revolver afforded. In the summer of 1874 he 

 explored the whole length of the Smoky Hill River, an utterly trackless wild, 

 infested by Indians, whose murderous depredations were visible on every side. 



Mudge's bibliography is brief and the papers generally limited to 

 but a few pages at most. His material he willingly put in the hands 

 of others for publication, and Marsh, Cope, White, and Lesquereux 

 profited thereby. It was during one of these earlier trips that he dis- 

 covered the first specimen of Ichthyornis, which, coming into the 

 hands of Marsh, did so much toward making the latter famous. 



Mudge made the first geological map of the State (Kansas), which 

 is fairly correct in its main features, save for the Lower Cretaceous, 

 which he failed to recognize. 



He mapped and described with tolerable accuracy and fullness the physical struc- 

 tures of the different Cretaceous and Tertiary horizons. Much, if not most, of the 

 information thus given was based upon his patient researches in wagon or on foot. 

 In general it may truthfully be said that his pioneer work in Kansas geology was 

 important and extensive, though now largely superseded by more detailed and 

 accurate studies. His work in life, however, has chiefly borne fruit as a teacher. He 

 was widely known as an enthusiastic and able lecturer, and his courses were always 

 in demand by the teachers and scientific men of the State. His quiet modesty and 

 unselfishness disarmed all envy and jealousy. Of most charming personality, of 

 wide culture, and unbounded enthusiasm, his teachings made an unusual impression 

 upon all with whom he came in contact. 



