266 wiscoNSiisr academy sciences, arts, akd letteks. 



Yes, all men are self-made, in one sense, for there can be no unusual attainments 

 without close and persisient study. Lapham, however, never had the advantages of 

 a college education. But was not the book of nature ever open to impart instruction 

 to this student who knew how to read its pages with delight and profit? To his ex- 

 tensive reading and close observation of nature we must not omit to add as an educa- 

 tional element in his life, scarcely to be overestimated, his long continued correspond- 

 ence with such men as Henry, Baird, Leidy, LeConte, Haldeman, Cassin, Hall, 

 Morton, Kirtland, Agassiz, Gray, Eaton, Silliman, Rogers, Hitchcock, Torrey, Harris 

 and ahost of othersemuientin science and arts. Anothermeansof improvement, not 

 neglected by Dr. Lapham, was attendance of meetings of societies devoted to the dis- 

 cussion of his loved studies, and where mind comes in contact with mmd, with mutual 

 benefit. He was a member of most of the scientific associations of the country, and gave 

 them many valuable written contributions. Some of his articles are published by 

 the Wisconsin Academy, in tlie Wisconsin and Illinois Agricultural Reports, Agri- 

 cultural Department of the Patent Office, Historical publications, Smithsonian Con- 

 tributions to Knovrledge, Proceedings of the American Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science, American Naturalist, Geological Reports, etc., etc. Besides, 

 he published many pamphlets and maps, both topogra[)hical and geological. His 

 writings were brief, clear and devoid of high-sounding words used for effect — he was 

 above such trick'^ry. 



In order to judge correctly of men, we must know them under those circum- 

 stances and in that place where nature and education hav^e best fitted them to act. 

 To know Dr. Lapham, we must go with him to his workshop — the great out-doors. 

 We stroll out on the prairies. He pulls up the grass and discourses familiarly of 

 the spikes and spikelets, the rachis and glume, inspects the roots, digs down and ex- 

 amines the soil from which they spring. His tongue is unloosed, and he becomes 

 eloquent in spite of himself. We go into the forest. He talks of the various spe- 

 cies of trees, the vines that clamber up their trunks and nestle in their branches. 

 He inspects the lichens that grow on tiie rough bark, examines the moss th.at ad- 

 heres lo the roots, and unearths a tiny helix that has found a home there. We go 

 to the rapids, and he immediately interests himself in the rare ferns that festoon the 

 rocks willi their graceful fronds; or clambers among the quarries, marks the strati- 

 fication of the Silurian rocks, and chips out rare forms of Crinoids and Trilobites — 

 tho.-^e wonderful representations of the ocean fauna of the dim past. We seek the 

 mounds — those records of a pre-histoiic race — dig beneath their foundations and 

 wrest from ihem tiieir secrets. The position of the bones is carefully noted, their 

 rude pottery leslored, the curious stone implements treasured up, and 128 mounds 

 are surveyed and mapped. We stand upon our lake shore and he discourses of the 

 force of the waves, and describes the ingenious contrivance by which he detected 

 the lake's minature lunarwaves. He talks of the force of the winds and their 

 velocity and direction and then looks up the clonds and tells their indications, and 

 speaks of the annual rainfall and of the average temperature of the seasons for the 

 last thirty years, during which time he had kept a faithful record of these phenom- 

 ena. 



His last paper, " Oconomowoc and the Small Lakes of Wisconsin,'- was prepared 

 for me. The ink was scarcely dry before his soul passed over to the " Shining 



