Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 73.djvu/502

498 Long was a hurried one, although it was made overland from St. Louis to Council Bluffs and but few plants were collected near St. Louis. James remained with the expedition until its close. His efficient labors are proved by the subsequent publications founded upon his observations and collections. The present Pikes Peak was first named James's Peak, by Major Long, but for some unexplained reason the earlier name has not remained in use.

The next two years after the return of the expedition were spent in compiling his results, which were published in 1825, and were of much historical and scientific value. During the next six or seven years he served as a surgeon in the regular army at extreme frontier posts, and here he studied the Indian languages and translated the New Testament into the Ojibwe tongue. He also published a biography of John Tanner, a man who was captured by the Indians while a child, and was brought up by them. When the medical department of the army was reorganized he resigned and returned to Albany, where he was associate editor of a temperance periodical. Upon leaving this he went west and settled near Burlington, Iowa, where he spent the last days of his life in agricultural pursuits. On October 25, 1861, he was run over by a wagon and injured so seriously that he died three days later.

The genus Jamesia, of the Saxifrage family, was named in his honor by Torrey and Gray.

The results of the exploring expeditions seem to have directed attention to the Missouri country, so that a number of men of ability came to that section and made botanical explorations of greater or less extent. Before the Long expedition had finished its work an amateur botanist, Dr. Lewis C. Beck, was collecting about St. Louis.

Dr. Lewis Caleb Beck was born in Schenectady, New York, on October 4, 1798. In 1817 he graduated at Union College; he then studied medicine and began to practise at Schenectady in 1818. He moved to St. Louis in 1820 and lived here until 1822. During this time he collected quite extensively and later published a list of his collections. His introductory note is self-explanatory and is as follows:

During my residence in Missouri, in the years 1820, 1821 and 1822, a portion of my time was occupied in the investigation of the vegetable productions of that and the adjoining state. Upon my return I was so fortunate as to receive, uninjured, the collections which I had made.

Until the present season (1826), however, I have not had leisure to examine them with the necessary attention, and to revise my notes upon the recent plants. This work I have now commenced, and submit to you the first part,