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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 101. 



efforts of other investigators. Many schol- 

 ars have, since his book was written, made 

 the long pilgrimage to the desert mesa to 

 witness the ceremony, and some have spent 

 years in studying the rite without yet 

 learning all that there is to be known. 



In 1895 Captain Bourke received two 

 well earned tokens of the recognition of 

 his work. He was elected Secretary of the 

 Section of Anthropology of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science 

 and President of the American Folk-Lore 

 Society. 



As a writer, Captain Bourke displayed 

 great power. In his scientific treatises 

 he was clear and concise ; in his popular 

 works, entertaining, witty, and, to a high 

 degree, graphic. His pictures of early days 

 in Arizona and of wild life on the "Western 

 frontier have, in their way, not been ex- 

 celled ; while some of his descriptions of 

 Indian campaigns and battles stand unri- 

 valled in the literature of modern warfare. 



Captain Bourke was only 53 years of 

 age when he died— an age when men are 

 often in the fullest exercise of their intel- 

 lectual powers. Only a few months before 

 his death he told the writer, in a letter, 

 that he hoped soon to get retired from ac- 

 tive duty, on account of length of service ; 

 to make Washington his home and to de- 

 vote the remainder of his life to the study 

 of American Ethnology. What a hope was 

 here held out for Science ! What a pleas- 

 ant anticipation to the writer, who looked 

 forward to frequent association, in con- 

 genial pursuits, with his valued friend ! 

 "Oh Death! Where is thy sting?" It is 

 here. In our hearts we feel it. It will 

 abide with us forever. 



Our loss is irreparable. Some say that 

 the loss of no man is irreparable and that 

 where one falls, another as good takes his 

 place ; but with our subject such is not the 

 case. The life he experienced, the scenes 

 he witnessed, many of the customs which 



he had studied and had not described to the 

 world are part of an irrevocable past. The 

 ' sea of change ' sweeps as a tidal wave over 

 all that belongs to our aborigines. Many 

 reminiscences stored in his memory are 

 buried with him. 



But while the world of science may 

 mourn in its formal way, it is to the inti- 

 mate friends of Captain Bourke that his 

 loss is deeply painful. He was a man of 

 the most charming personality. In his 

 serious moods his conversation was wise 

 and instructive, while, for his gayer mo- 

 ments, his wide experience and close 

 observation had given him an inexhausti- 

 ble fund of narrative. He was an excellent 

 mimic and always told his story to the best 

 advantage. He was not only a humorist, 

 but a decided wit, and he had the rare 

 faculty, when uttering his wittiest sayings, 

 of assuming a sad expression of face which 

 might put to shame ' The Knight of the 

 Sorrowful Countenance.' 



A gallant soldier, a chivalrous gentleman, 

 a scholar of rare acumen, a faithful friend, 

 a dutiful son, a loving husband, a devoted 

 father ; such was the comrade over whose 

 grave the bugle has sounded 'taps ' on the 

 Heights of Arlington. 



Washington Matthews. 



THE BOTANICAL SEMINAR OF THE UNIVER- 

 SITY OF NEBRASKA. 



The Botanical Seminar of the Univer- 

 sity of Nebraska celebrated its decennial on 

 October 10th. The Seminar was founded on 

 October 11, 1886, as a quasi-fraternal or- 

 ganization of seven students in the botani- 

 cal department. It soon grew into a serious 

 botanical society, and since 1888 has been 

 maintained as such by graduate students in 

 botany in the University. It is a unique 

 example of a society without constitution, 

 by-laws, or written rules of any sort. No 

 election has ever been held, no motion has 

 ever been made and no formal vote has 



