ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETY 5 



ance to Professor Agassiz in obtaining collections and informa- 

 tion for his "Natural History of the United States." About this 

 time he concluded to take up the study of medicine as a more 

 lucrative practice but after two terms at the Rush Medical 

 School, ill-health showed that he could not stand the close con- 

 finement. In 1856 he was again active in building up a Chicago 

 Museum of Natural History. The same year he accepted a 

 proposition from the United States Commissioner of Patents 

 to write an account of the mammals of the northwest injurious 

 to farming interests. This was published in the report for 1856. 

 In 1857 he made collections to start a Museum of Natural History 

 for Northwestern University and collected from Cairo, Illinois 

 to the Red River of the North. In 1859. he collected in the region 

 north of Lake Superior and from Hudson Bay to Behring Straits. 

 In 1862 he explored the valley of the McKenzie River from its 

 mouth to Fort Simpson. In 1865 he was selected to head an 

 expedition organized by the Western Union Telegraph Company 

 to Alaska and to collect objects of natural history for the Chicago 

 Academy. 



The party sailed from San Francisco March 21, 1865, and, 

 later, was divided into two expeditions, Kennicott and his party . 

 going up the Yukon River. He arrived at St. Michael's, Morton's 4 \ 

 Sound, in September, and this spot was destined to be the base of 

 his future operations in the Yukon Valley. In this country he 

 had many disappointments and delays, and was weakened by 

 extreme hardships and exposures which undermined his none 

 too rugged constitution. Death overtook him when he reached 



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J? ' . - 



'THE GROVE", DESPLAINES 



