ACADEMY OF SCIENCES] BIOGRAPHY 5 



Brazilian Government had followed these explorations with much interest; and realizing their 

 important bearing on the industrial resources of the country, they employed Roderic Crandall, 

 Doctor Branner's assistant, to continue the work after the latter had left Brazil. 



Doctor Branner returned to Stanford after about six months' absence, but before long 

 his desire to revisit Brazil returned, and in 1911 he started with a new party for the purpose of 

 making a study of the geology and biology of the Brazilian coast in the neighborhood of the 

 mouth of the Amazon River. Particular attention was given to the study of sea life on both 

 sides of the vast volume of fresh water poured out by that river, and especially to its effect 

 on the marine migration which moves along the coast from the shores of Pernambuco toward 

 the mouth of the Amazon. The haunts and habits of the larger snakes in Brazil were also 

 studied in detail and several specimens of boa were secured. In spite of many difficulties, 

 various new discoveries were made on this expedition, and a number of important papers on 

 special subjects were published. 



In consequence of the numerous trips of Doctor Branner to Brazil the world to-day owes 

 to his indefatigable efforts much of its geologic and other scientific knowledge, not only of the 

 eastern part of the country in the States of Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe, Bahia, Minas Gereas, 

 and Rio de Janeiro, where he did a large part of his work, but also of almost every other part. 

 On some of his trips he worked in conjunction with Dr. Orville A. Derby, an American geologist 

 who had been engaged in geologic work under the Brazilian Government and under the govern- 

 ment of the State of Sao Paulo for many years. Doctor Branner was assisted on some of his 

 trips by H. E. Williams, who had been with him on the geological survey of Arkansas, and by 

 Roderic Crandall, who had gone to Brazil with him and who in later years continued work 

 which Doctor Branner had begun. Others of his own countrymen were also on occasions 

 associated with him. 



Doctor Branner was on most cordial terms with the Brazilian geologists, many of whom 

 had done excellent scientific work and were always glad to cooperate with him. Some of his 

 work was done jointly with them, and the noted Brazilian geologist, Dr. Miguel Arrojado R. 

 Lisboa, was among Ids particular friends. Even with the officials of the Empire of Brazil and 

 of the United States of Brazil which followed it, he was on terms of intimate good fellowship, 

 and nothing illustrates this better than the passage of resolutions of condolence at the time 

 of his death by the Chamber of Deputies of the Brazilian Government. 



Doctor Branner throughout his whole career naturally took a great interest in the subject 

 of earthquakes, but this interest was much stimulated after the earthquake in California in 

 April, 1906. Soon after that calamity he was appointed by Governor Pardee a member of 

 the State Earthquake Investigation Commission of California. In addition to this commission 

 one of the direct results of the calamity of 1906 was the formation of the Seismological Society of 

 America, of which Doctor Branner was one of the charter members. He was president of the 

 society from 1910 to 1914, and was chairman of the publication committee from 1911 to 1921. 

 In 1915, when widely divergent opinions were being expressed regarding the questions of earth- 

 quakes and landslides as affecting the Panama Canal, Doctor Branner was appointed a member 

 of a committee of 10 which was commissioned by the United States Government to visit the 

 Canal Zone and investigate these matters. 



Most of Doctor Branner's seismological work, however, was done in California and in more 

 or less direct connection with the Seismological Society. He was extremely active in all these 

 investigations and accomplished important results in collecting data which could be practically 

 applied in the limitation, and in some cases the avoidance, of the destruction caused by earth- 

 quakes and by the disastrous fires which often follow them as a consequence of broken water 

 pipes. His work in this field was one of those remarkable accomplishments resulting from purely 

 geologic research that characterized many of his investigations in other subjects. 



Prof. Sidney D. Townley, of Stanford University, who is himself a leader in seismological 

 research, in writing of Doctor Branner's connection with the Seismological Society, says, in its 

 Bulletin for March, 1922, that "In the death of Doctor Branner, the Seismological Society has 

 lost one of its staunchest supporters. He gave liberally of his time, energy, and funds in support 



