PROFESSOR JOHN W. POWELL. 391 



and spent the fall in Missouri, studying tlie geology and mineralogy of 

 the Iron Mountain region. In 1858 he made a trip from Ottawa, Illi- 

 nois, down the Illinois River to its mouth, and later ascended the Des- 

 moines River, returning laden with specimens. 



The various institutions of the State of Illinois, and some of other 

 States, soon came to depend upon his collections for illustrating their 

 courses of scientific lectures, and the Illinois State Natural History 

 Society elected him its secretary, and extended to him facilities for 

 prosecuting his researches, now recognized as of high value. The funds 

 necessary for conducting these operations he was ohliged to obtain by 

 teaching a portion of each year. 



The breaking out of the rebellion put a temporary check upon Pro- 

 fessor Powell's scientific adventures. He enlisted as a private in the 

 Twentieth Illinois Infantry. Having been made a lieutenant, he was 

 transferred to Battery F, Second Illinois Artillery, and was afterward 

 promoted to be captain of the battery, then major of the regiment, 

 and finally lieutenant-colonel. In the last days of the war he re- 

 ceived a commission as colonel, but, having no desire to follow war 

 as a profession, declined it. 



At the battle of Shiloh he lost his right arm. As soon as he had 

 sufficiently recovered from his wound he returned to his post, and con- 

 tinued to serve to the end of the war. 



His passion for collecting did not forsake him even while in the 

 army, and wherever he was stationed for a sufficient length of time he 

 found means of studying the geological formations, and of shipping from 

 time to time to the State Museum large invoices of valuable material. 



On his return from the army he was offered a lucrative civil po- 

 sition in his own town of Wheaton, but he preferred to accept the 

 comparatively unremunerative one of Professor of Geology and Cu- 

 rator of the Museum of the Illinois Wesleyan University at Blooming- 

 ton. This he afterward ' exchanged for a similar post in the Illinois 

 Normal University. 



In the summer of 1867 Professor Powell, taking with him his 

 class in geology, visited the mountains of Colorado for the purpose of 

 study. This excursion was the first attempt of its kind in this coun- 

 try, and to Professor Powell is therefore due the credit of having 

 inaugurated a practice of the highest value to science and to educa- 

 tion, which has been continued by many eminent teachers at leading 

 institutions, until a certain amount of field-study has become recog- 

 nized as a necessary part of a course of instruction in all branches of 

 natural science. 



Professor Powell saw more in the parks and canons of Colorado 

 than a mere training-school for students. He saw, stretching far 

 westward and southward, a vast unexplored region, hitherto repre- 

 sented on all maps by an utter blank, and through which at some 

 point must flow an immense river, the Colorado of the West, whose 



