Edward Dri/iker Cope. — King. 3 
the air-breathing vertebrates of the Ohio region. In the same 
year he published his first complete SAaiop&is of the extinct 
Amphibia of North America, (56). 
During the years i87i-'73, Cope joined many exploring 
expeditions to Kansas, Wyoming and Colorado. He was then 
appointed vertebrate paleontologist of the United States Geo- 
logical and Geographical Survey of the Territories, and dur- 
ing his connection with this survey he explored and collected 
in every state and territory west of the Missouri. As a re- 
sult of his own labors and those of special parties sent out at 
his own expense, Cope amassed a collection of vertebrate fos- 
sils from the west unequalled, perhaps, in number and variety 
of forms. His work on the survey was published by the gov- 
ernment in several volumes: "The Vertebrata of the Cretace- 
ous Formations of the West," (186); "Report Upon the Ex- 
tinct Vertebrata obtained in New Mexico by Parties of the Ex- 
pedition of 1874," (223); and "The Vertebrata of the Tertiary 
Formations of the West," (407). In recognition of the first 
two works. Cope was awarded in 1879, the Bigsby medal of 
the Geological Society of London. The University of Heidel- 
berg still further rewarded his genius by conferring upon him. 
in 1886, the degree of Doctor of Philosophy — the highest 
honor in its power to bestow. 
The loss of a greater part of his private fortune led Cope, 
in 1889, to accept the position of "Professor of Geology and 
Mineralogy" in the University of Pennsylvania. In 1895, he 
was transferred to the professorship of Zoology and Compara- 
tive Anatomy, the position he held at the time of his death. 
In February 1897, professor Cope's health became seri- 
ously impaired, but he could not be induced to give up his 
work. The last few days of his life he grew worse very rapidly 
and it was considered unwise to remove him from his study 
and museum in Pine street, Philadelphia, where he was strick- 
en down, to his home at Haverford. Thus he passed away 
surrounded by the objects to the study of which he had de- 
voted his life. In his will, all his priceless collection of fossils 
was bequeathed to the University of Pennsylvania and to the 
Academy of Natural Sciences, and it is hoped that a worthy 
successor will finish the work of classification and description 
which professor Cope did not live to complete. 
