SKETCH OF CHARLES HENRY HITCHCOCK. 261 



lecture room. She took indefatigable pains with the education of 

 her children, placing their moral and religious welfare first. Of 

 the eight children of the family, six of whom reached maturity, the 

 surviving brother is professor of physical culture, and, for the time 

 being, acting president at Amherst College, and one of the two sur- 

 viving sisters, the widow of the Rev. C. M. Terry, has been for sev- 

 eral years matron of the Hubbard Cottage, Smith College, North- 

 ampton, Massachusetts. 



Beginning with 1835, the year before Professor Hitchcock was 

 born, his father, Professor Edward Hitchcock, was largely occupied 

 with the study of the " fossil bird tracks " in the New Red Sandstone 

 of the Connecticut Valley, and with the discussions to which the 

 investigation gave rise, the story of which has been told by Prof. 

 C. H. Hitchcock himself in the Popular Science Monthly (vol. iii, 

 August, 1873). Besides the search for the fossils and their collec- 

 tion and comparison, and the examination of the literature that 

 might throw light on the subject, there were studies into the proper 

 interpretation of the early chapters of Genesis, the debate with Prof. 

 Moses Stewart, of Andover, and the gradual approach of the Ameri- 

 can clergy to general acquiescence in the belief that geology is not 

 at variance with Scripture. Professor Hitchcock's childhood was 

 largely spent under the influence of these studies and discussions. 

 The boy seemed to be full of promise, and because of his observing 

 ways and proneness to speculation was called " the young philoso- 

 pher." He used to bring his mother the very small flowers of 

 Spergula rubra, which are so obscure that older eyes often fail to 

 notice them. He seemed to be fonder of his father than the other 

 children, and was never so happy as with him. Through this con- 

 stant intercourse Charles became absorbed in his father's pursuits, 

 and grew up into a knowledge of geology from Nature and from 

 verbal explanations — a more satisfactory method than that of learn- 

 ing from books; and he was associated with his father in all his 

 geological work from the time when he was first old enough to be of 

 service. Thus, before 1856 he was acquainted, from inspection, with 

 the terraces and reputed beaches and drift phenomena of all western 

 Massachusetts; he had handled every specimen of a foot mark in 

 the Appleton Cabinet, and by 1861 was the principal assistant 

 on the Vermont Survey, having prepared for the press the 

 greater part of the matter of the report. He had enjoyed the best 

 educational advantages of his day, having completed the classical 

 and preparatory courses of Williston Seminary, and been graduated 

 thence in 1852, then graduated from Amherst College in 1856, 

 a short time before his twentieth birthday. Among his early class- 

 mates and college friends were Dr. Cyrus Northrup, president of 



