Uriah Pierson James. 
283 
preceded him to the grave. He was an active member, at one 
time president, and for a long time treasurer of the old West¬ 
ern Academy of Natural Sciences, the predecessor of the pres¬ 
ent Cincinnati Society of Natural Hisfouy, and one of the 
very earliest scientific societies established in the Mississippi 
valley. 
In those early days conchology was very prominent among 
the sciences, and the unrivaled facilities of the neighborhood 
enabled the early collectors of Cincinnati to gather collections 
which their successors have not been able to rival. Before 
the growth of the city many streams swarmed with mollusks 
which are now entirely deserted by them. Certain species 
were abundant which are now extinct in the neighborhood. 
Mr. James was not slow to avail himself of this opportunity, 
and he amassed a collection of the Unios and univalve shells 
of the Ohio,, the two Miamis and the White rivers, which is 
probably the largest and best local collection now in the 
neighborhood of Cincinnati. One result of this early study 
of concholog} r , was a catalogue of the shells of Cincinnati, 
compiled by a committee appointed by the Western Acad¬ 
emy of Natural Sciences, and published by Mr. James. He 
was also the publisher of the catalogue of plants of Cincin¬ 
nati, compiled by Joseph Clarke and Robert Buchanan. 
There were no facilities in the days of the ? 40’s as there 
are now, for the study of palaeontology. The difficulties un¬ 
der which the collectors labored were enormous. There were 
no books upon the subject until the “ Palaeontology of New 
York” appeared, and this only partty covered the ground of 
the Cincinnati horizon. Still the collectors, Mr. James 
among them, persevered. They read papers now and then 
before the Academy, or sent drawings or specimens to the 
east for identification or description. One of these was drawn 
by Mr. James and sent to Prof. Dana, who figured and des¬ 
cribed it under the name of Paloeaster Jamesi , by which it is 
still known. 
The visit of Lyell to Cincinnati in 1845 gave renewed 
impulse to the study. Mr. James was among those who re¬ 
ceived this eminent authority, and piloted him over the fa¬ 
miliar hunting ground, even making diagrams of some of the 
more interesting sections seen in the neighborhood. Agassiz 
