At this period of undertaking, the plucky little professor (he was small in stature and most delicately formed) had collected $3,000, and $6,500 necessary to complete his work. The times were hard and the subscriptions came in so slowly that he determined to collect them in person. Where money could not be procured, he took provisions or anything in the world that had negotiable value. This "potpourri" of valuables he marketed and turned into cash as best he could. Nor was this all that the indefatigable professor had to do. Many of his subscriptions being in work and materials no collectors would accept them as his assets and he undertook to make them available by buying all the materials, hiring all the men and superintending all the work, at which task he labored like a miniature titan. The ascent to the place of construction was steep. Therefore, he built a kiln and burned the lime; he purchased a sand pit also and often shoveled its contents into the wagon with his own hands.