MEMOIR OF W. H. NILES 9 



tive terms because of lack of means. There he received instruction, and, 

 what was perhaps more valuable, encouragement from his mother's 

 brother, Oliver Marcy, LL. D., later of Northwestern University, at 

 Evanston, Illinois. 



It was with Doctor Marc/s advice that he went to Cambridge to be- 

 come a pupil of the distinguished Prof. Louis Agassiz. At the Museum 

 of Comparative Zoology his work was largely zoological, but geological 

 studies were his favorites. It was while there that he developed a decided 

 fondness for physical geography, and for the remainder of his life that 

 was his favorite branch of science. As a student of the Lawrence Scien- 

 tific School, he attended two courses of lectures in comparative anatomy 

 by Prof. Jeffries Wyman, three courses in botany by Prof. Asa Grey, a 

 course by Professor Lovering, and he took two courses in mineralogy 

 under Prof. Josiah P. Cook. His special studies under Professor Agassiz 

 were of the nature of investigations, often without any aid from books. 

 For the first lesson a pile of fish bones was placed in front of him, with 

 no instructions except that he was told to see what he could make out of 

 them. After several days of careful observation, comparison, and thought 

 he succeeded in arranging and classifying the bones to the satisfaction of 

 the master and much to his own encouragement. In this way he care- 

 fully studied modern corals and fossil mollusks of the Mesozoic. His 

 most extended and detailed researches were upon the crinoids, and it was 

 upon the classification and distribution of this group that his thesis was 

 prepared. He spent six months in Iowa and Illinois studying the noted 

 crinoid collections of Charles Wachsmuth, Doctor Thieme, and Eev. W. H. 

 Barrus, and in making various field studies in geology. As agent for 

 Professor Agassiz, he purchased the last-named collection for the Museum 

 at Cambridge. It was through the highly esteemed kindness of Professor 

 Agassiz and the assistance that he granted him from the Thayer Fund 

 that he was enabled to enjoy such opportunities for four years. 



The young student was fortunate in his teachers, who were leaders in 

 their respective sciences, and also fortunate in his association with a 

 group of students, called together largely by the fame of Agassiz, nearly 

 all of whom became prominent as scientists, investigators, or teachers, or 

 both. He was a room-mate and always a close friend of J. A. x^llen, 

 curator of the department of mammalogy at the Museum of Natural 

 History, Central Park, New York City. Other students at the Cam- 

 bridge Museum with whom he was intimately associated were x\lpheus 

 Hyatt, C. F. Hartt, A. E. Verrill, F. W. Putnam, S. H. Scudder, A. S. 

 Packard, Horace Mann, A. S. Bickmore, and 0. H. St. John. 



