Charles Bincrsoti Beech cr. — Clarke. 3 
ised to conic back to Albany when bis coilcj^e course was 
done and join Hall's corps of workers on paleontology. So in 
the summer of 1878, the year of his graduation, he Iccame 
assistant to professor Ilall, entered upon his work and was 
received with genuine enthusiasm. 
Those early years at Albany were of imalloyed happiness 
for the young paleontologist. Plis mind was not fi'led with 
dreams of fame, but he had at last reached the wellspring and 
could slake his thirst at will. Hall had then been for more 
than forty consecutive years engaged in elaborating iht geol- 
ogy of New A^ork; he regarded himself, as the uni. served 
devotee should, the personitication of his work. He was the 
Paleontology of Nciv York. He invited young blood to 
aid him in his work and paid in the invaluable trai;:ing this 
work ofifered to his assistant, but he shared no honors. At 
the time of Beecher's advent in Albany professor Hall wa? 
busied with two of his tremendous monographs of the fossils 
embraced in four quarto volumes, and into the study of the 
vast group of species represented in one of these, the I.niiielli- 
branchiata, Mr. Beecher was gradually inducted. As a sys- 
tematic work this undertaking was of giant proportions, noth- 
ing like it had been attempted in American paleontology, but, 
the two heavy volumes issued, it is not difficult indeed to 
find where the hand of the master was guided by that of the 
student. The plan of this, as of previous volumes, and the 
spirit in its execution even to details, was that of its author, 
but it is well to record here, as has not been done before, 
wherein the student forecasted, in this early work done sub 
umbra, his future fruitage. One sees through these plates 
instructive illustrations of critical structures, hinges, denti- 
tion, muscular scars, which were largely drawn from prepar- 
ations made by the student. There is one difficult 'i^hograph 
plate copied entirely from Beecher's own drawings, made lie- 
cause this youthful Launcelot was not content with the draw- 
ings bv Hall's expert and finished artists. This is worth re- 
marking because the standard of artistic work in the reproduc- 
tion of the New York fossils was and has always been high. 
There was one immense group of species in this descriptive 
work brought together under the generic name of Leptodesma 
— tiftv and more of them — to the everlasting confusion of all 
