July 29, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



141 



tions of regions where no white man had 

 ever been before and brought to light much 

 geographical information. At the same 

 time, the plants and recent animals were 

 collected, so far as it was possible to do so 

 without sacrificing the principal end in 

 view, and in these departments also an un- 

 expected measure of success was attained, 

 and a representative series illustrating the 

 botany, zoology and paleontology of Pata- 

 gonia was secured. 



Hatcher then conceived the plan of pub- 

 lishing together in one uniform series of 

 reports, by the hands of different special- 

 ists, all these results, which would other- 

 wise necessarily appear in separate form, 

 scattered throughout the various technical 

 journals. This plan was submitted to Mr. 

 J. Pierpont Morgan, and to his liberality 

 it is due that this cherished scheme is now 

 in process of realization and in a manner 

 surpassing the hopes of its original pro- 

 poser. In addition to the 'Narrative and 

 Geography,' Hatcher had undertaken to 

 write reports upon the geology and also 

 upon the fossil Litopterna and Marsupialia. 

 How much of this material can be put into 

 shape for publication can not yet be told. 

 In any event, he has raised for himself an 

 enduring monument in these volumes, 

 which owe their existence to him, however 

 much or little may be his verbal contribu- 

 tion to their contents. 



Hatcher finally returned home (little as 

 he believed it to be a final return) in the 

 autumn of 1899 and in the following Feb- 

 ruary he accepted a position as curator of 

 vertebrate paleontology in the Carnegie 

 Museum at Pittsburg, a position which he 

 occupied till his death. With undimin- 

 ished interest and zeal he took up the 

 larger and more exacting duties of his new 

 sphere and conducted his work with dis- 

 tinguished success. Paleontologists all 

 know with what remarkable rapidity the 



collections of the Carnegie Museum have 

 grown within the last four years and what 

 a wealth of noble material has been brought 

 together there, much of it unsurpassed in 

 the world. No less than three great col- 

 lections thus owe their, choicest treasures 

 to the skill and devotion of Hatcher. 



It would, however, be creating a very 

 false impression to let the reader suppose - 

 that Hatcher was entirely or even mainly 

 a collector. For a long time he modestly 

 held back from bringing his own observa- 

 tion and inferences before the scientific 

 world and from this comparative seclusion 

 he was late in emerging. He had been 

 well trained and he had enjoyed great ex- 

 perience in years of field-work over a vast 

 territory in two continents ; more than this, 

 he possessed a singularly original and in- 

 dependent mind and the keenest powers 

 of observation, and these gifts, combined 

 with his wide opportunities, led him to 

 many novel and important conclusions in 

 dynamical and stratigraphical geology, 

 only a verj- small part of which has yet 

 been published. The paleontology of the 

 vertebrates was the field in which he took 

 the deepest interest and in which he has 

 published most, his papers dealing prin- 

 cipally with mammals and reptiles. These 

 papers show the ability which he brought 

 to his subject and there seemed every rea- 

 son to hope that his unresting activity 

 might continue for many years and that 

 the harvest would correspond to the long 

 and laborious period of preparation. But 

 this hope has been denied ; Hatcher Avas cut 

 off just when his powers and opportunities 

 had reached their fullest development and 

 the boundless field, in which he so loved to 

 work, lay open and unrestricted before him. 

 When his last illness attacked him, he was 

 engaged upon a monograph of the Cera- 

 tosauria for the U. S. Geological Survey, 

 upon the monographs for the Patagonia 



