172 WOOD NOTES WILD. 
Last Days or THE AUTHOR. — Contin. 
a severe cold contracted in Boston. Pneumonia was subse- 
quently developed, and after a few days of suffering he passed 
peacefully away. During his half-conscious hours of illness 
snatches of bird-song were often upon his lips. You will 
find, doubtless, a sad pleasure in completing for his sake the 
unfinished little book which so much interested him in his 
last days. I have been assured that when the work on the 
phonograph is published Mr. Cheney’s services will receive 
ample acknowledgment. His often expressed wish, that the close 
of life here might find him at work with unimpaired mental 
vigor, has been fulfilled. An adorer of Nature, his last labor 
was devoted to interpreting the songs of her children.” 
Notations from the Phonograph. 
The following letter from Dr. Fewkes, of the Boston Society 
of Natural History, gives a full statement of Mr. Cheney’s last 
service in the interpretation of Nature-music :— 
“When I returned from Calais with phonographic cylinders 
on which were recorded the music of the Passamaquoddies, 
your father, who had never heard these Indians sing, wrote 
out from the cylinders the music, and thus made it possible 
for me to demonstrate that the phonograph can be profitably 
employed in the study of Indian melodies. In publishing the 
results of my experiments I have already referred to his help, 
and as you have shown an interest in the matter I am glad to 
be able to add a word or two to what I have already written. 
“Some of the music of the Passamaquoddies which I obtained 
is undoubtedly aboriginal, and as such is very difficult to repre- 
sent by our methods of musical notation. Not being a musical 
person myself, I left the writing out of the music tohim. How 
well he did it others must judge; but I have every reason to 
believe that, as the idea of collecting Indian music by means 
of the phonograph was original with me, he was the first one, 
