32 



AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 



Special Collaborator, U. S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Terri- 

 tories {1876-1882). 



From 1874 to 1882 I gave much the larger part of my time to original 

 research, the results of which appeared in numerous minor papers and in 

 several monographs. The first of the latter was 'The American Bisons, 

 Living and Extinct,' published in 1876, under the joint auspices of the 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology and the Geological Survey of Kentucky 

 (N. S. Shaler, Geologist-in-Charge). In 1876, with the approval of the 

 director of the Agassiz Museum, I divided my time between this institution 

 and the United States Geological and Geographical Survey, of which for the 

 following six years I was a " special collaborator." At the end of this period 

 the United States Geological Survey was reorganized and the scope of its 

 work greatly restricted. Also my health became so seriously impaired 

 that I was obliged to suspend almost entirely my research work for a con- 

 siderable period (as explained later in this narrative). 



My work for the Geological Survey comprised a number of minor papers 

 published in the 'Bulletin' of the Survey and monographs of various 

 families of North American rodents, in cooperation with the late Dr. Elliott 

 Cones, published in 1877 as 'Monographs of North American Rodentia,' 

 forming volume XI of the 'Memoirs' of the Survey. In J. 880 was pub- 

 lished my 'History of North American Pinnipeds, a Monograph of the 

 Walruses, Sea-Lions, Sea-Bears and Seals of North America,' as No. 12 

 of the 'Miscellaneous Publications' of the Survey (8vo, pp. xvi + 785, 

 60 text figures). This was to have been followed by a volume of the 'Me- 

 moir' series on the North American species of the mammalian orders Cete 

 and Sirenia. To this undertaking I had devoted about three years of 

 intense application, and when overtaken by illness had written a large part 

 of the text, and most of the plates had been lithographed. The only parts 

 ever published were a portion (about one-third) of the bibliography, 1 and 

 the account (with reduced half-tone copies of the plates) of the Atlantic 

 Right Whale, 2 more than a quarter of a century after it was written. The 

 printing of the bibliography was left uncompleted in consequence of the 

 inability of the author to revise the proof sheets. 



A serious attack of pleurisy interrupted my work in December, 1881. 



1 Preliminary List of Works and Papers 'relating to the Mammalian Orders Cete and Sirenia. 

 Bull. U. S. Geol.^and Geogr. Survey, VI, pp. -399-562, August 30, 1882 (1013 titles, carrying the sub- 

 ject from the year 1495 to the end of the year 1840). 



2 The North American Right Whale and its Allies. Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., XXIV, pp. 277- 

 329, pll. xix-xxiv, April 8, 1908. As here published the article is changed only by the addition of new 

 matter to bring the subject down to the date of publication. 



