86 



This same privilege was again and again granted by him in his subsequent 

 letters even down to comparatively recent periods, but as it was generally 

 done in connection with remarks it would be improper to give here, we do not 

 quote them. In another letter received some time after from Major H. in reply 

 to a letter I had written requesting him, if he had any more of these fossils to 

 send them on, as it was desirable we should have as many as possible of the 

 specimens, before taking them up for study, he writes, Sept. 9, 1857 : " I sent 

 Professor Swallow a collection, at that point, and some others, under the im- 

 pression that they were Carboniferous, and probably he will pronounce them 

 such, as they were mixed with fossils of that system, from the same locality. 

 If he is under that impression, he will not send them to you, as I requested 

 him to send all to you that were not Carboniferous." 



I then wrote to Major H. telling him it was better not to send his collec- 

 tions to two different persons, as both might take them up, and spend much 

 time and labor upon them, which must of course be lost to one party or the 

 other. 



To this he repeatedly replied, that Professor S. would not interfere in the 

 matter. I have not space to quote all he has said on this subject at various 

 times, nor would it be proper to do so here, but the following paragraph from 

 his letter of the 21st August, 1857, is one of many of a similar nature in my 

 possession : 



" Professor Swallow certainly will not attempt to interfere with you in this 

 matter. He knows perfectly well the relations existing between us ; and ex- 

 pressed himself gratified that I was furnishing you with important informa- 

 tion, in the furtherance of your investigations. Furthermore he has not the 

 data to establish a relation between the several points under review by you. 

 I merely send him the Carboniferous fossils for classification and comparison 

 with those of the Missouri collections, that a parallel may be established to 

 aid me in my future operations." 



After this several letters passed between Major H. and myself in relation to 

 his collections. (He wrote me in 1857, 22 letters respecting his explorations, 

 and I must have written nearly the same number to him, directing his at- 

 tention to such points in the geology of the country, as I thought it might be 

 interesting to examine.) I was especially anxious to obtain the other fossils from 

 the formation I believed to be Permian, and allowed considerable time to elapse, 

 hoping he would either collect more, or get those he had sent to Prof. Swal- 

 low and send them on to me. On the 4th of January, 1858, he wrote : " I 

 have a letter before me from Prof. Swallow, in which he thinks the speci- 

 mens sent him from Smoky Hill fork, are Carboniferous, therefore I suppose 

 he has not sent you any fossils." 



In the letter above quoted, Major H. states that he has in his possession a 

 collection from the various formations in Kansas, and expects to start with 

 them to Columbia, Mo., in a few days. No allusion whatever, was made in 

 this letter about intending to get Prof. Swallow to investigate the fossils from 



