academy of Sciences.] BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 147 



Three other monographs of like nature were later prepared by colleagues under the super- 

 vision of Dr. Van Hise, viz: "The Mesabi Iron-Bearing District of Minnesota," by C. K. Lcith 

 (Monograph XLIII, U. S. Geological Survey, 1903); "The Vermillion Iron-Bearing Series of 

 Minnesota," by J. M. Clements (Monograph XLV, U. S. Geological Survey, 1903), and "The 

 Menominee Iron-Bearing District," by W. S. Bajdey (Monograph XL VI, U. S. Geological Survey, 

 1904). These taken with the preceding treatises, make in all six ponderous volumes on the 

 iron-bearing series of Lake Superior. Altogether these embrace over 3,000 quarto pages, 

 and are illustrated by multitudes of figures and maps, making up a monumental series quite 

 unmatched in its own line, a testimony to the invincible industry of Dr. Van Hise. It scarcely 

 need be said that these placed Van Hise at the head of workers on the iron-bearing series of 

 the Algonkian or Proterozoic ages. 



While these studies had centered on the great iron-bearing series of Lake Superior, they 

 had involved careful discussions of the adjacent formations of other types, and so were regional 

 monographs as well as specific formational treatises. 



There followed these regional monographic studies, in an order that was natural to the 

 trend of an expanding mind always prone to take large views of his field, a series of papers of a 

 broader range. Among these was a series of elaborate discussions of the correlations of the 

 oldest known formation, the Archean, and the next following systems, which lie unconformably 

 upon these and upon one another in due order, the Algonkian series, since grouped under the 

 name Proterozoic. These discussions formed a part of a notable series of correlation papers 

 published by the National Geological Survey in 1892, under the general editorship of the late 

 Grove Karl Gilbert. They have proved very helpful to all workers in this difficult field. 



In 1904 there appeared what many regard as the climacteric paper of Dr. Van Hise, "A 

 Treatise on Metamorphism," a ponderous quarto of 1,286 pages, discussing in a masterly way 

 and in great detail the leading modes by which the nature of rocks are changed and the agencies 

 and conditions that take part in these changes. As all the rocks which he had been studying 

 so diligently during the preceding two and a half decades had undergone such changes in some 

 large measure, but yet in quite different degrees and in quite different ways, he was amply 

 equipped for this great work by intimate personal familiarity with the phenomena. In this 

 work Van Hise made a special effort to reduce the phenomena of metamorphic rocks to the 

 laws of chemistry and physics. This opus magnum has had a profound influence on the progress 

 of opinion on this important phase of geologic research. It was shortly after the completion 

 of the manuscript of this monumental work that Dr. Van Hise was called to undertake the 

 administration of the University of Wisconsin, and with the assumption of this great task his 

 more active geological studies ceased. 



One of his greatest contributions, however, appeared seven years later in collaboration with 

 Dr. Leith, whose relations to Van Hise were much the same as those of Van Hise to Irving. This 

 was a comprehensive summary work on "The Geology of the Lake Superior Region" (Mono- 

 graph LII, U. S. Geological Survey, 1911). In this important work, there were gathered the 

 mature ideas of both authors as these had gradually grown into fullness and ripeness as the 

 result of the studies and restudies of the previous 30 years. It is a masterly endeavor to set 

 forth, in generalized form, the characteristic features of the iron and copper bearing series, 

 their relations to one another and to the great basement complex on which they rest, and to 

 interpret the origin of the ores that give these formations then- extraordinary economic values, 

 while at the same time it sets forth the long and varied history of the region. It is not, of 

 course, to be regarded as the final word on these vast themes, but it sums up a long series of 

 intensive studies of great fruitfulness. Far from holding it as a final utterance, its authors 

 speak of it merely as the first of a series of such monographs to be hoped for in the future, a 

 series which shall carry forward similar comprehensive treatment to greater and greater fullness 

 and perfection as exploitation shall reveal more and more of the hidden structure that prevents 

 completeness now. In spite of such modest disclaimers, it stands as a really monumental 

 work, marking a great epoch in the scientific elucidation of an intricate region of extraordinary 



