ACCRETIONS OF A MINOR NATURALIST
by Ned Dearborn '89. Typescript manuscript given by author to the Library in1945. 250 pp. of which 34 contain photographs.
Ned Dearborn, "Crys" in the manuscript, learned early, on a 200-acre New Hampshire farm, that "it was the privilege of watching things alive that prevented life on the farm from being dull." Here was a juvenile rustic who learned how to handle a collecting gun, became well versed in mammal and bird lore, and capable in handicrafts, and eventually travelled and studied in Guatemala, Venezuela, all the United States but two, all the Provinces and Alaska. In 1905 on a collecting trip in Guatemala for a midwestern museum of natural history he acquired, in three months, 1,000 bird specimens and a case of malaria.
From 1910 to 1920 he was employed by the U. S. Biological Survey with his attention directed primarily toward rodent control and fur farming. From 1920 to 1927 he worked on a private fur animal and stock farm in Jefferson County, New York. At the age of 60 he temporarily "retired" to Tidewater, Virginia, where he soon became the mayor on the issues of a sewer and water system. From 1928 to 1932 he engaged in teaching and fur animal research in Michigan at the University. For two years, "to the hilarious amusement of the farmers on whose lands they tramped," he and two energetic graduate students collected some 3,500 fecal specimens of carnivorous tur animals without taking a single life. This study resulted in a 52-page publication. Food ofSome Predatory Fur-bearing Mammals inMichigan, which had much influence. Since 1932 "Crys" has been busy not only getting acquainted with the fauna and flora of Tidewater, Va., but has made with the aid of a microtome, miscroscope, and camera lucida, single and serial sectional outlines, drawn to scale, of more than 470 different kinds of hair specimens from all the mammalian families on the Globe. This study, which should be published soon, is in itself a remarkable as well as useful piece of work. "Crys" has termed himself a "minor naturalist" yet it has been through his efforts and those of a few others like him during the late 1800s and the early 1900s that the groundwork was laid for modern wildlife management.
Since it was at the suggestion of Ralph Bartlett, Secretary, Class of '89, that Ned Dearborn assembled his memories from before 1870 to 1942, some readers will be disappointed in learning that "Crys" tells little about his life at Dartmouth. Apparently though, he acquired proficiency in mathematics, physics, and field botany, evening winning a prize for the best collection of local plants. In the Library he found and avidly studied Wilson's American and Field Botany, Coues' Key to theBirds of North America, Samuels' Birds ofNew England, and Minot's Land Birds of NewEngland. The numerous well-illustrated and relatively inexpensive natural history books of today were then non-existent.
EXECUTIVE AVAILABLE Young sales and management executive of proven ability desires lifetime connec- tion with small organization where knowl- edge of business management, modern merchandising plus ability to direct the activities of others will earn a management position and eventual part ownership- salary secondary to achieving the above, working with worthy associates, enjoying happy family life in wholesome community —prefer small city—some traveling not ob- jectionable. Dartmouth '35. Box 200, Dartmouth Alumni Magazine Hanover, N. H.
