The life of a fossil hunter — Story, Setting & Ideas

cimens would be studied by competent authority, and that I should receive credit for my discoveries.

The specimens were sent to Dr. John Strong Newberry, professor in Columbia University and State Geologist of Ohio. He did not find opportunity at that time to publish the results, but long years afterwards, in 1898, I received from Dr. Arthur Hollick a copy of “Later Flora of North America,” a posthumous work of Dr. Newberry’s. Turning instantly to the magnificent plates, I recognized some of my early specimens, the first I ever collected that were of value to science.

Although, owing to the long delay in publication, I lost credit for them, and the duplicates which I had given to a friend had been used by Lesquereux to illustrate some new species accredited to that friend instead of to their rightful discoverer, Dr. Newberry kindly acknowledged my work on p. 133 of his book, where he says: “The leaf figured on Plate X and that represented on Plate XI were included in a collection made by Charles H. Sternberg, and Lesquereux has done only justice to him by attaching his name to the finest species contained in the large collection of fossil plants he made there,” that is, at Sassafras Hollow.

In 1872, just before Lesquereux’s great work, “The Cretaceous Flora,” appeared, I learned that the famous botanist was a guest of Lieutenant Benteen, the commander of Fort Harker. Fortunately, I had retained rough sketches of the first specimens I had sent to the Smithsonian Institution. So with these I started for the Post, where I found a reception in progress in honor of the noted guest.

I was introduced to the venerable botanist by his own son, who spoke to him in French, as he was almost deaf. When I displayed my sketches, he took me to one side, and in a corner of the room I told him the story of my discoveries. His eyes shone when he examined the drawings. “This is a new species,” he said, “and this, and this. Here is one described and illustrated from poorer material.”

I do not remember how long we talked. I only know that the golden moments sped by all too rapidly; and from that hour until his death in 1889 we were in constant correspondence.

After this all my collections were sent to him for description. Over four hundred species of plants like those of our existing forests along the Mexican Gulf, some beautiful vines, a few ferns, and even the fruit of a fig, and a magnolia flower petal, the only petal so far found in the coarse sandstone of the Dakota Group, have rewarded my earnest efforts. The fragrance of this lovely flower seems wafted down to us through the myriads of ages since it bloomed.

Dr. Arthur Hollick, in his paper, “A Fossil Petal and a Fruit from the Cretaceous (Dakota Group) of Kansas,” in Contributions from the New York Botanical Garden, No. 31, says, on page 102: “Included in a collection of fossil-plant remains from the Cretaceous (Dakota Group) of Kansas, recently obtained by the New York Botanical Garden from Charles H. Sternberg of Lawrence, Kansas, are two exceedingly interesting specimens,—one representing a large petal, the other a fleshy fruit. Petals are exceedingly rare, and I am not acquainted with any published figure of anything of the kind which can compare with ours in regard to either size or satisfactory condition of preservation.”

Of the fig, the Doctor remarks: “The fruit is plainly that of a fig, and, although some twenty-three species of _Ficus_ have been described from the Dakota Group, they were based upon leaf impressions. This fossil has every appearance of many dried herbarium specimens, and it is evident that it must have possessed considerable consistency in order to retain its original shape, as it has done to a certain extent, under the pressure to which it must have been subjected.”

In 1888 I sent over three thousand leaf impressions from the Dakota sandstone to Dr. Lesquereux, and he selected from them over three hundred and fifty typical specimens, many of them new, for the National Museum. Hundreds of others, identified by him, were afterwards purchased by R. D. Lacoe, of Pittston, Pa., and presented to the Museum.

So feeble had the great botanist become in these last years of his life, that friends passed before his failing eyes the trays containing these great collections.