. Biology in America. Biology. 38 Biology in America While these surveys were primarily topographical and geological in purpose, they were usually accompanied by naturalists, whose duty it was to investigate and report upon the wild life, both plant and animal, of the region visited, and to them much of our knowledge of the natural history of the United States is due. Of prime importance in the work of these naturalists were the discoveries of the paliEontologists. The western plains and mountains constitute a veritable storehouse of buried treasure, and the pick and shovel of the paUeontologi
. Biology in America. Biology. 38 Biology in America While these surveys were primarily topographical and geological in purpose, they were usually accompanied by naturalists, whose duty it was to investigate and report upon the wild life, both plant and animal, of the region visited, and to them much of our knowledge of the natural history of the United States is due. Of prime importance in the work of these naturalists were the discoveries of the paliEontologists. The western plains and mountains constitute a veritable storehouse of buried treasure, and the pick and shovel of the paUeontologist un- covered here a large part of the material for writing the history of ancient life. These were days too when it was lint impossible for one man to cover an extensive field of science. Tlius we find the elder Agassiz equally famed as a geologist and zoologist, and Dana, the noted geologist, i)ro- tVssor at Yale from 1850 to 1890, writing a monumental work on the Z()oi)hytes and Crustacea of the Wilkes Exploring Expedition ; Cope, master not onl}' of vertebrate palaeontology but of modern fishes, am])hibia and reptiles as well, and Lcidy, botanist, mineralogist, geolo- gist, paleontologist, parasitologist, protozoologist and comparative anatomist. A notable event in American science was the advent of Louis Agassiz in 1846. Born in 1807 at the little town of Motiers in Switzerland, the son of a clergyman, he early displayed that love of natural history, which made him famous. Champion fencer and jolly comrade, as well as gifted student, his uni- versity days at Zurich, Heidelberg and Munich found him a leader among his fellows and his room in Munich dubbed by them "The Little ; His scientific work early attracted the attention of Humboldt and Cuvier, who gave him all possible assistance in his career. While professor of natural history in the University of Neuchatel, Agassiz gained world wide fame by his studies in zoology, palaeon- tology, and especially o
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