Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-08-26
Scientific Discussions
by Garrett P. SerUisS

Many years ago, while hunting in an
amateurtsh way for tri!ubites in a
deep, shady. romantic and wonderful
ravine near Ithaca, y. Y. I was sud
ucnly confronted by young man of
my own age, carrying 4 geological
hammer in his hand. who came uneX-
Tcc,eGl! arounG 4 projecting corner of
the preClpitJlS rock wall that tot
tered high above the natural pavement
OF slate over which a little wrinllling
stream slid like 4 film OF liquid dia-
monds. After a few words of greeting
l said l was looking Tor trilobites. but
couldn't find any.
Good place. though" said he.
Elarcing at the broken edges of the
layers of slate piled up at his elbow
like the ught-prt ssed leaves Of 4 time
stained book, Il hundred feet thick.
why. here's one now"
He pec!ied at the foliated stone with
his hammer. and out came the dark
gray. ow-shaped-head and the typical
three cross-barred body-lobes Of the
finest fossil of trilobite that I had
ever seen outside a museum.
The man vas Herbert Huntington
Smith. who had already. by his eX-
ploTatioHs in Brazil and elsewhere, be-
come known as one OF the most eN
pert collectors of natural history spe-
cimens in the world.
y few days ago he was killed by n
freight trai- in Alabama. Even at
the time when I met him in the ravine
he was already quite deaf and his
deafness is said to have contributed to
the accident that ended his life.
have never seen him since the day
he found the trilobte for me, but that
old. gray FOSSIL mounted in a little
wooden frame. still hangs on the wall
in my wrtinE-room, piqUing the curl
OSity Of visitors.
The way it was found illustrates a
species OF human faculty. very inter-
esting to observe in action and which
sometimes gives rise TO superstitious
notions. l. recalls 4 story told by
Emerson about Thoreau. \ friend of
the latter while walking with him one
day lamenJed his continual failure to
find an Indian arrowhead, and said
If you should ever find one I beg
YOU to give it to me- They are
rare said Thoreau, STOPPING and pick
ing up a fragment Of earth-covered
substance he saw in the sod and now
that you have an opportunity. YOU had
better examine this And he pre-
sen.ed a fine specimen from which he
finished disengaging the earthrust. As
Mr. Emerson told this story to Mr..
Woodbury. he hinted that he thought
the finding OF the arrowhead no ac-
cident." He said things came to
ThoreaH "as they will TO lovers of the
woods and fields
Cut out the touch OF mysticism,
which Emerson always loved TO put in
because lie was a poet, and his state
ment about things coming TO such
a man as Thoreau was logically
sound. Herbert II. Smith too, had
this genius Of the finder. He was a
living embodiment of the legendary
power of st. Anthony of Padua.
Things came 10 him because he went
TO them. The fossils seemed to know
his step - because, of course, he knew
beforehand, by a kind of knowledge
that appeared instructive and there
fore uncanny, where they were buried
Peculiarities about a rock that the
ordinary person would rot notice at all
were as plain as print TO him. In the
cottage where lie dwelt near the shore
OF Cayuga Lake, he showed me, the
same memorable day when we met in
the raVine. q collection of rare fossils
scme yet half enveloped in their stone
shrouds. that I remember because of
their astonishing perfection. They
were like statuettes in their delicate
beauty. ITO show me how II was done
he removed the remaining stone from
scme half disengaged specimens. But
all the same. I did not see how il was
dcne any more than one sees how
prestidgitator performs his apparently
impossible feats. BLOWS that IL struck
by me would have smashed the fossil
irto dust, when dealt by him simply
urshelled it and it rolled easily out
OF the bed of its million-year nap. OF
course, this was acquired skill - but
then. it was something more. too.
Some men have as marvellous abil-
ity in finding money as Herbert
Smith had in finding petrifed life
forms, and perhaps Charon would as
readily accept a trilobite as an obol
for his ferrymans fee.