Othniel Charles Marsh. 11 
was being carried on, and some time each year was spent in 
reconnaissance for new fields of labor. 
The right wing of the Peabody Museum was completed in 
1875, the means having been furnished by Mr. George 
Peabody largely through the influence of his nephew, Profes- 
sor Marsh. It was to his uncle, also, that Marsh was indebted 
for his educational advantages and for his private fortune. 
. The old Yale Cabinet had long been outgrown. The rooms 
became so crowded that for years there was only space for a 
chalk line dividing the different departments. The collections 
which had been accumulating during so many previous years 
found a commodious home in the new museum, and work 
was resumed with great activity under more favorable condi- 
tions than heretofore. Huxley’s visit in the following year 
was a further stimulus to higher work, as is clearly evinced 
in the celebrated Nashville address mentioned elsewhere. 
The National Government had not altogether neglected its 
opportunities for scientific research in the West during this 
period, though the results in the way of substantial collections 
were far inferior to those Marsh had obtained. For some time 
previous to 1878, there were four separate surveys, two under 
the Engineer Department of the Army and two others, exten- 
sions of private expeditions, under the Department of the 
Interior. In the reorganization ordered by Congress in 1878, 
Marsh, as acting President of the National Academy of Sci- 
ences, was the chief instrument in effecting a consolidation and 
in defining the relations of the present United States Geologi- 
cal Survey with the general Government and with the United 
States National Museum. The wisdom of this change was at 
once apparent, and the Survey is now often considered one of 
the most economical, best managed, and productive depart- 
ments of the Government. 
After repeated solicitation and with promises of material aid 
in the way of publication and collections, Marsh, in 1882, 
accepted the appointment of Vertebrate Paleontologist to the 
United States Geological Survey. This position he held to the 
time of his death, although the field work for the survey was 
terminated in 1892, His connection with the Survey gave him 
increased facilities for publication and for prosecuting explora- 
