

1 32 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



his life to the study of these fossils. It can not be said, however, that 

 he was entirely moulded by Agassiz, for Hyatt was a fearless and inde- 

 pendent thinker, and though modest in the expounding of his views, he 

 nevertheless clung tenaciously to his own opinions. 



Few men of science have been so free from egotism as was he. He 

 was a kind friend to many a young student of Harvard, for he never 

 seemed to lose his contact with youthful thought, and delighted to 

 receive instruction from old and young and every one great or small 

 around him. In his address before the Agassiz Association in Mechan- 

 ics Hall in Boston he tells of this, and unwittingly gives us a charm- 

 ing picture of his own generous mind and kindly heart. He was speak- 

 ing of things the association might do to disseminate an understanding 

 of natural history, and told of his friendship with an old farmer who 

 had formed some geological theories of his own and who knew Professor 

 Hyatt simply as " the man as studies rocks." Hyatt says : 



The wonder and delight in his old, wrinkled, weather-beaten face on finding 

 that his ideas were not merely local, but universally true, and what he had 

 thought out was not ridiculed but regarded with respect was a sight I have 

 never forgotten. 



He concluded this address by saying : 



Tlie minerals, the rocks, the plants, the animals, the earth, the planets and 

 the stars are full of facts unknown as yet to us. These are nature's books, the 

 volumes are everywhere and no one is so poor that he can not have access to 

 them — these are the books of the future, and eventually we shall have them 

 collected in museums and issued as printed volumes now are for the instruction 

 of the people. 



In 1862 Hyatt graduated from Harvard with the degree of B.S., 

 his scholarly standing being higher than that of any of Agassiz's pupils 

 who had until then obtained this degree. 



His inclinations were all for science, but the civil war had broken 

 out and he felt it his duty to serve in the Union Army. His mother he 

 succeeded in persuading into an acceptance of his views, but it was far 

 otherwise with the remaining members of his family, from whom he 

 became estranged only to be reunited after years of silence. He aided 

 in raising a militia company in Cambridge and enlisted as a private, 

 but was almost immediately commissioned a lieutenant and afterwards 

 promoted to be a captain of the 47th Massachusetts regiment. For a 

 time he was stationed upon Cape Cod and afterwards ordered to New 

 Orleans, where he served as aide-rle-ramp on General Emory's staff. 



I have a letter of this period written by the late Professor 1ST. S. 



Shaler to their mutual friend, George H. Emerson, in which he says: 



So Hyatt has gone into the smoke of the great battle. May God defend 



him and grant him immunity from the fate of so many of our brave. He will 



win success and will make at once a good follower and an equally good leader. 



The war being over, he was honorably discharged, and returned to 

 Cambridge in 1865 to continue his studies. Louis Agassiz at once 



