MEMORIAL OF O. H. SAINT JOHN 33 



The first day in tlie laboratory Agassiz placed some fish materials on 

 the table before him and told the student to find out what he could about 

 them. Student leisurely pawed over them for about an hour, until he 

 fancied that he had learned about all there was to learn concerning the 

 fossils and until he thought it about time for the Professor to return; 

 but no professor appeared that day. This was repeated daily for a whole 

 week, but apparently with no results and no encouragement from the 

 master. Finally, on the eighth day, when Agassiz put in appearance and 

 asked his young protege what he had found out, the latter, now thor- 

 oughly discouraged, unwittingly inquired about certain points of re- 

 semblance between two fishes. This happened, as he afterward found 

 out, to be a moot point in anatomy, and the Professor was all attention, 

 and immediately started a fire of questions so rapid that the young man 

 did not have opportunity to answer a word. The latter had made his 

 first important discovery. Ever after, study for him was easy. 



At Cambridge at this time Saint John found other young and enthu- 

 siastic naturalists in the Agassiz laboratories. Among those who after- 

 ward became famous authorities were Joel A. Allen, the ornithologist; 

 Alpheus Hyatt, the paleontologist; Charles E. Hartt, the geographer; 

 Edward S. Morse, Asa S. Packard, and A. E. Verrill, the zoologists, all 

 of whom attained eminence in their special fields. 



Cambridge days were busy days with young Saint John. Besides his 

 own studies on the fossil fishes, Professor Agassiz intrusted him with 

 important Museum affairs. For many months he was engaged on the 

 preliminary work of a part of the general catalogue of specimens and 

 exhibits in the Museum. This was something more than a mere enumer- 

 ation of specimens. It had the special purpose in view of testing their 

 relative importance for the progress of science. At the same time it was 

 particularly adapted for the ready determination of their most appro- 

 priate arrangement in the Museum. In the preparation of the catalogue 

 of the fossils from Waldron, Indiana, of which large collections had been 

 recently received, the intent was to lead to a correct appreciation of the 

 peculiarities of this old fauna as compared with those of the English 

 Wenlock fauna and of the New York Niagara fauna. 



In the few months immediately preceding the departure of the Thayer 

 Expedition to Brazil, Saint John and Hartt were busy with identifying 

 and arrano-ino- collections received from various Western States and from 

 Nova Scotia. Saint John alone was credited on the Museum books with 

 obtaining 13 large boxes full of western fossils. 



When Saint John returned to the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 

 after finishing his labors on the Iowa Geological Survey, in 1870, lie took 



III — Bull. Gkou Soc. Am., Vol. 3.°,, 1921 



