THE 
AMERICAN GEOLOGIST. 
Vol. XXIV. SEPTEMBER, 1899. No. 3 
OTHNIEL CHARLES MARSH.* 
By Charles E. Beechee, New Haven, Conn. 
(Portraits.) 
Professor Marsh will always be esteemed as one of the most 
prominent of American investigators in the field of vertebrate 
paleontology. The nearness of the perspective at the present 
time, however, renders it difficult properly to individualize and 
accord the true rank to the many important discoveries he 
made. He brought forth in such rapid succession so many 
astonishing things that the unexpected became the rule. The 
science of vertebrate paleontology could not assimilate new 
material so fast, and it will be years before the true significance 
and bearing of much that he has done will be understood. 
The constant stream of vertebrate riches which, from 1868 to 
1899, flowed into the Yale Laiiversity Museum from the Rocky 
■ Mountain region had a similar bewildering effect on Marsh, 
for it was impossible for him to do more than seize on what 
appealed to him as the most salient. The work of the hour 
was to him of prime importance, whether it was for the deter- 
mination of a new order of mammals or a new cusp on a 
tooth. Still, he seems to have had a just conception of relative 
values, for it will be found that he plucked the most luscious 
plums from the paleontological tree, and left chiefly the smaller 
or unripe and imperfect fruit untouched. 
Another element in his success was seen in the improve- 
ment he made in the methods of collecting, preserving, and 
*Abridged with alterations from the account published in The Ameri- 
can Journal of Science, Fourth Series, Vol. VH, June, 1899. 
