734 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



1838-1871." What he realized in money from his literary labor cannot 

 be stated. His works have had an enormous circulation, probably more 

 than double that of any other writer on the North American Indians. Of 

 the "Eight Tears amongst the North American Indians," in two volumes 

 eleven English editions are noted, some seven American editions, and 

 several German. It is safe to say that more than twenty thousand copies 

 of the large work (the two volumes of Eight Years) were sold. Originally 

 the price of the foreign editions was £2 10s., or $12, which was reduced 

 after 1844 to £1 10s., or $7. The American ordinary editions sold for 

 $5 and $7. His " Notes of Travel in Europe " had a sale of some eight 

 thousand copies; his minor works, such as Okeepa, three thousand 

 copies. Mr. Catlin stated in 1868 that his "Life amongst the Indians," 

 his book for youth, published in 1861, was sold to the extent of sixty 

 thousand volumes. Twenty thousand copies of his "Last Eambies," 

 1868, were sold. It can be safely said that more than one hundred 

 and twenty thousand volumes of the several editions of Mr.* Catlin's 

 works have been sold. His share in these sales is nowhere given, nor 

 can it be estimated ; but at a low estimate $50,000 would seem a very 

 small amount to state as his receipts from this source. Many piratical 

 editions of his works were issued, from which he received nothing. His 

 large illustrated folios sold for large prices. These he kept in hand 

 himself. The " Eight Years," " Notes in Europe," and his large folios, at 

 sales by auction, in collections or otherwise, bring handsome prices. At 

 the T. W. Field sale, May 24, et seq., 1875, at Bangs, Merwin & Co., New 

 York, a copy of his folio of 1844, 25 plates, the English edition, brought 

 $37.50 ; a copy of his "Eight Years," edition of 1866, 2 volumes, London, 

 colored plates, brought $24 ; a plain copy of the same, $4.25- His 

 works are rarely found in the hands of dealers, and when found demand 

 a high price. Many of his works are considered standard authority, and 

 are fast becoming Indian classics. 



A NATIONAL PARK. 



Mr. Catlin in 1832 originated the idea of a national park, since car- 

 ried out by the nation in the creation of the Yellowstone National Park. 

 His idea was that a reservation of public lands should be made — a large 

 one — to be a nation's park, containing man and beast in all the wildness 

 and freshness of their nature's beauty. 



In pages 261 and 262, volume 1, Catlin's Eight Years, he elaborates 

 the idea, concluding — 



I would ask no other monument to my memory, nor any other enrollment of my 

 name amongst the famous dead, than the reputation of having been the founder of 

 such an institution. 



MR. CATLIN AS AN INVENTOR. 



In London, in 1845, Mr. Catlin's attention was directed, by the wreck 

 of the Solway and other ships, to the invention of a process for saving 



