142 GROVE KARL GILBERT— DAVIS [ME1IOIES [ ^ T1 xxt 



Appalachian history is almost Wholly limited to the region of the lower Great Lakes, where his 

 field work began in the summer of 1885, as will be narrated below. Regarding the physiography 

 of the remainder of his eastern field, his associates and disciples, inspired in the next following 

 years as much unconsciously as consciously by his suggestive teachings, published far more than 

 he did ; yet he was so generous as to congratulate them on their work. He wrote to a corre- 

 spondent in July, 1891: 



When I was called east to take charge of the Appalachian division, the part of work I reserved for myself 

 was the correlation of the coastal plain formations and unconformities with the baselevels of the Appalachians; 

 but I never got fairly at it, and so and have cut in ahead of me. As I do not believe in the estab- 

 lishment of scientific preserves, I have no complaints to make, and only a shade of regret that I am not in it; 

 otherwise I am proud of the way the work is being done. 



As to the Paleozoic geology of the Appalachians, Gilbert appears never to have exercised 

 more than a supervising control. He retained charge of the division for five years, and visited 

 his field parties in the Southern States on several occasions, but the actual field work was done 

 by his assistants. The first of these, appointed in 1S85, were Russell and Wdlis, who like their 

 chief had previously worked in the West; they were assigned to the study of several transverse 

 sections widely spaced from Maryland to Alabama. Hayes, Keith, Geiger, and Darton were 

 added in 1S87, and in that year the transverse sections were completed and areal work was 

 begun. Along with this, Gilbert proposed the preparation of a soil map of the Appalachian 

 belt, but the proposal was not realized. Much of his own work was still, as reported to Powell 

 in the ninth annual, 1887-88, turned to a variety of small tasks: 



My attention in Washington has been directed largely to administrative details under your immediate 

 direction, but I have also spent some time upon the long deferred report on the history of Lake Bonneville, now 

 nearly ready for the press. 



His share in Appalachian work was therefore more in the way of advice and inspiration 

 than performance. That he left to his associates, to whom he opened wide opportunity and 

 gave full responsibility and full credit, and from whom he therefore received the most loyal 

 service; for there is nothing that binds a junior to his senior so much as to be trusted. 



As areal work soon advanced at such a rate that paleontological correlation could not 

 keep pace with it, a serious problem arose, for which an expedient solution was announced in 

 the tenth annual, 1888-89; the field parties were "compelled to define and map formations as 

 local masses"; or, as stated more fully a year later in the eleventh annual, "formations rather 

 than names should be mapped; that is to say, the actual distributions afforded by the strati- 

 graphy of the given area are to be represented on the map in preference to distinctions belong- 

 ing to the stratigraphic succession of other areas. " In consequence of these instructions the 

 field geologists had to introduce a large number of new names for locally recognizable groups 

 of strata which could not be accurately assigned to the standard subdivisions of the geological 

 scale, previously established chiefly with reference to those in New York. This decision, which 

 had Powell's full approval but which was undoubtedly formulated by Gilbert, has been adversely 

 criticized by those who desired to see what they regarded as a more scientific method ol progress 

 in the national survey; but the reason, not to say the necessity, for the decision is fairly mani- 

 fest in the case of a survey that depends for its continued existence on annual appropriations 

 from a Congress not always interested in the expenditure of large sums of money lor scientific 

 purposes. The funds available each year truly might have been so apportioned that the area 

 mapped according to visible formations by the field geologists should not have been extended 

 faster than fossils could have been searchingly collected from each of the formations on the 

 ground and studiously compared with the standard collections of the National Museum and 

 elsewhere, so that, theoretically at least, a single set of time names might be applied to all 

 areas ; but on such a plan the progress of the geological map, the preparation of which was the 

 survey's prime duty, would have been so slow as to endanger the continuation of congressional 

 appropriations. Hence the available funds were so apportioned that areal work should advance 

 rapidly enough to make what might be congressionally considered a good showing for the funds 



