158 SCIENCE SKETCHES. 
of a busy summer; and these observations, for 
the most part unchecked by the comparison of 
specimens, he prepared for the press during the 
winter. To this manner of working, perhaps un- 
avoidable in his case, many of Rafinesque’s errors 
and blunders are certainly due. In one of these 
note-books I find, among a series of notes in 
French, the following remarkable observation in 
English: “The girls at Fort Edward eat clay!” 
In another place I find a list of the new genera of 
fishes in Cuvier’s ‘ Régne Animal” (1817) which 
were known to him. Many of these are designated 
as synonymous with genera proposed by Rafi- 
nesque in his “ Caratteri” in 1810. With this list 
is the remark that these genera of Cuvier are iden- 
tical with such and such genera “ proposed by me 
in 1810, but don’t you tell it!” 
Rafinesque was six months on the ocean in this 
second voyage to America. Finally, just as the 
ship was entering Long Island Sound, the pilot let 
her drift against one of the rocks which lie outside 
of the harbor of New London. The vessel filled 
and sank, giving the passengers barely time to 
escape with their lives. “TI reached New London 
at midnight,” says Rafinesque, ‘in a most deplora- 
ble situation. I had lost everything, — my fortune, 
my share in the cargo, my collections and labors 
of twenty years past, my books, my manuscripts, 
and even my clothes,— all I possessed, except 
some scattered funds and some little insurance- 
money. Some hearts of stone have since dared 
to doubt of these facts, or rejoice at my losses. 
Yes, I have found men vile enough to laugh with- 
