EDWARD HITCHCOCK. 695 



that the axis of the Green Mountain chain is older than lower 

 Cambrian. The latest workers in this field accept this conclu- 

 sion. 



Perhaps the favorite subject of Prof. Hitchcock was the study 

 of the " Drift/' He began to study the ice-marks even before the 

 discovery of the footprints, and soon found himself far beyond the 

 comprehension of his literary and scientific associates. Neither 

 the iceberg nor glacier theory was original with him; but no one 

 up to the time of his death had published so much upon the sub- 

 ject. His views are developed in the treatise on Surface Geology 

 published by the Smithsonian Institution in 1857. His general 

 theory refers the phenomena to both icebergs and glaciers ; and 

 their setting forth was generically like the most recent deliver- 

 ances of Sir William Dawson, who acknowledges the presence of 

 glaciers upon the mountains from which the icebergs were de- 

 rived that flooded the submerged valleys. His papers are of special 

 interest concerning river terraces, local glaciers in western New 

 England, trains of bowlders, and frozen deposits of drift gravel. 

 It is an interesting fact that he argued against the admissibility 

 of Agassiz's glacial theory because of the absence of a grand ter- 

 minal moraine at the outer margin of the ice sheet. It was less 

 than five years after his death that geologists began to appreciate 

 the true significance of the backbone of Long Island that it was 

 part of a gigantic moraine more than a thousand miles long. It 

 is easy to see where Hitchcock would have stood had these facts 

 been known in his day.. 



The first written suggestion in regard to the formation of the 

 American Association of Geologists came from Prof. Hitchcock, 

 and he was chosen its first president in 1840. This was the parent 

 of the later organization known as the American Association for 

 the Advancement of Science. He was present at nearly every 

 meeting of both organizations until the gap in the later history 

 induced by the war. 



As President of Amherst College he was called upon to exercise 

 unwonted judgment. The institution had almost broken down 

 because of heavy indebtedness. The historian of the college de- 

 clares that the institution was saved from destruction by the skill 

 and wisdom of President Hitchcock. As an instructor and guide 

 no one was more loved and honored. The number of students 

 doubled during his administration. It was while he was presi- 

 dent that his Religion of Geology appeared, in which he ex- 

 pounded the applications of science to theology. Most of the posi- 

 tions there maintained are accepted by the advanced Christian 

 thinkers of to-day. The work appeared before the advent of Dar- 

 winism, but its principle was discussed as creation by law. While 

 not accepting any development hypothesis, Prof. Hitchcock took 



