232 
the Boston Society of Natural History for 
1874.2 
In the preparation of his paper on the De- 
vonian fossils, he spent some time in Albany, 
N Y, where he came under the influence of 
James Hall, the state geologist of the great 
Empire state; and later while completing the 
paper on the Cretaceous fossils he studied at 
the Museum of Comparative Zoology, where 
he was so fortunate as to be able to attend a 
course of lectures by the elder Agassiz, then 
in the last year of his life. 
Cambridge proved a congenial environment, 
and so instead of returning to Cornell, he 
continued at the Museum of Comparative 
Zoology from 1873 till 1875, acting also as 
assistant in zoology at the Boston Society of 
Natural History. During the summer months 
of those years he served as volunteer scientific 
assistant under Spencer F. Baird in the ma- 
rine explorations of the U. S. Fish Commis- 
sion on the New Engand coast, and thus be- 
gan his connection with the Smithsonian In- 
stitution, for at that time the scientific work 
of the Fish Commission was practically under 
the direction of the Smithsonian. 
In the autumn of 1875 he received the ap- 
pointment of geologist to the Geological Com- 
mission of Brazil with orders to report to 
Professor Hartt in Rio de Janeiro, and with 
that service he continued until March, 1878. 
His first field work was in the region about 
the Bay of Bahia, and continued thence down 
the coast of the Province of the same name to 
near its southern end. Extensive deposits of 
coal said to occur in parts of that region con- 
stituted one of the special objects of the ex- 
ploration, but the geology was studied in every 
particular, including the extensive coral reefs 
that lie along the coast, and also the ethnology 
of the Indian tribes living inland. The report 
on the geology and coral reefs was pubished 
in the Archives of the National Museum of 
Rio de Janeiro in 1878.8 i 
Later he explored the central and southern 
parts of the province of Sao Paulo for the 
purpose of determining the mineral, and es- 
2Vol. 17, pp. 241-256. 
8 Vol. 3, pp. 159-183. 
SCIENCE 
[N. 8. Vou, XLVIIL. No. 1236 
pecially the coal, resources, and while these 
proved to be unimportant, he had the oppor- 
tunity of studying the origin of the rich red 
lands where the famous coffee of that region 
is grown. 
On returning to the United States, Mr. 
Rathbun brought with him complete series of 
‘the Devonian and Cretaceous fossils which 
have since become the property of the U. S. 
National Museum. It had been his hope to 
have monographed this interesting material, 
but other duties claimed his attention and 
with the exception of a few papers such as 
“A List. of the Brazilian Echinoderms, with 
Notes on their Distribution,” which he con- 
tributed to the Transactions of the Connecti- 
cut Academy of Arts and Sciences for 1879,4 
the material was worked up by other scientists. 
Meanwhile he had accepted from Secretary. 
Baird the appointment of scientific assistant 
in the U. S. Fish Commission with which 
Service he then continued until 1896. At 
first the collections of the Fish Commission 
were preserved in the museum of Yale Univer- 
sity in the custody of Professor A. E. Verrill, 
to whom he was detailed as assistant, serving 
also at that time as assistant in zoology at 
Yale University. ¥ 
In 1880, owing to the approaching com- 
pletion of the U. S. National Museum build- 
ing, Mr. Rathbun was transferred from New 
Haven to Washington and brought with him 
a part of the collections which had been stored 
at the former place. At that time he was 
made’ curator of the department of marine 
invertebrates in the National Museum, an ap- 
pointment which he continued to hold until 
1914. 
As the Fish Commission grew, much of the 
administrative work was assigned to Mr. Rath- 
bun by Secretary Baird and the responsibility 
steadily increased until Baird’s death in 1887. 
Meanwhile, although Professor Verrill of Yale 
was the nominal head of the summer investi- 
gations of the Fish Commission, during much 
of the time Mr. Rathbun had active charge of 
the laboratories, steamers, and equipment and 
was responsible for the general management 
4 Vol. 5, pp. 139-158. 
