ACADEMY OP SCONCES] ABROAD 165 



whom he had been in correspondence for a few years, was his chief reason fpr crossing the Channel. 

 The wish was delightfully gratified, for as just told de Margerie opened his home to the American 

 visitor, and exhibited to him the remarkable collection of books and maps there gathered. Like 

 others to whom that privilege has been graciously extended, Gilbert was deeply impressed not 

 only with the wealth of the collection but still more with its owner's intimate knowledge of its 

 contents. He later asked the Chief of Engineers in Washington to send the maps of the Missis- 

 sippi River Commission to his friend in Paris, explaining that "Mr. de Margerie is better 

 informed in the geography and geology of the United States than most Americans, not excepting 

 members of the geographical and geological surveys." While in Paris Gilbert was accompanied 

 by de Margerie, than whom there could be no better guide, to various Government offices where 

 geological and geographical work was carried on. The rooms on the Boulevard St. Michel near 

 the Jardin du Luxembourg, occupied by the "Service de la carte geologique de la France," and 

 crowded with records and portfolios, seemed disappointingly insufficient when judged by 

 American standards; and the methods of map production there in vogue did not tempt imitation. 

 On the other hand, the visitor was much impressed by the maps and models in the bureaus of the 

 "Service geographique de 1'Armee." He was there introduced to Col. G. de la Noe — afterwards 

 general and director of this service — and was pleased to find on the small bookshelves near the 

 colonel's desk a copy of the " Geology of the Henry Mountains"; all the more so when he was 

 told that the photo-reliefs in that report had inspired de la Noe and de Margerie to introduce in 

 their joint work, " Les formes du terrain," published a short time before, similar reliefs of districts 

 in France; a sample plate was given him representing the former course of the Moselle when, 

 instead of turning as now northeastward at the Toul elbow of capture on the way to the Rhine, 

 it followed a meandering valley northwestward through a well-defined cuesta to join the 

 Meuse near St. Mihiel, a locality more famous in the twentieth century than in the nineteenth;) 

 it doubtless then gave to that now diminished river the force that it must have greatly needed 

 to maintain its antecedent course farther downstream across the rising mass of the Ardennes. 

 But as the French officer understood no English and the American geologist no French, conver- 

 sation between them was rather laboriously carried on through de Margerie as interpreter; and 

 intercourse of that kind seldom leads to intimacy. Probably for this reason, Parisian personal- 

 ities appear to have been less interesting than French processes. Gilbert was much impressed 

 by what he saw in the rarely entered workshops of the army geographical service, secluded in the 

 attics of the Hotel des Invalides, where he inspected the making of delicately carved reliefs of 

 significant French areas; and also in the bureau of printing of the same service, where the sub- 

 stitution of zinc plates for lithographic stones seemed to him a practical advance. It was in 

 view of these novelties that he exclaimed to his guide: "Our survey ought to have a permanent 

 representative in Paris for information on these matters, and the representative ought to be you" ; 

 but no official action in Washington seems to have followed from this enthusiastic outburst. 



Probably owing to his lack of knowledge of French, Gilbert met few scientific men in Paris, 

 visited no laboratories in the Sorbonne, and attended no meetings of scientific societies; but it is 

 remembered that he ascended to the belvedere on the roof of the de Margerie residence to enjoy 

 the panorama of Paris there disclosed ; and after his friend pointed out the Arc de Triomphe rising 

 over the houses on the higher ground across the river, and the Cathedral of the Sacre Coeur, then 

 in construction on the Butte Montmartre farther away to the north, he brusquely exclaimed : 

 "What a worthless use of money!" It might be inferred from this remark that his positive 

 spirit, previously concentrated upon the geology of the Rocky Mountain region and never 

 concerned with the historical and moral evolution of Europe, was awakened to no warm enthusi- 

 asm on viewing the superb monument erected by an emotional people to the glory of their arms 

 under the great Napoleon, and remained unmoved at the sight of the growing edifice dedicated 

 to worship by fervent believers in a mystical faith; and so his remarks appear to have impressed 

 his host. But those who, overlooking his not infrequent brusqueness of manner, knew him well 

 enough to appreciate the depth and seriousness of his inner nature, may perceive in his apparently 

 ungracious words not an expression of coldness in the presence of architectural exultation, or of 

 indifference in the sight of ecclesiastical aspiration, but an earnest and unrestrained protest 

 against the glorification of war in an age when war should be condemned as barbarous, and 

 against the perpetuation of ancient beliefs unchanged in an age which is coming to be more and 

 more converted to a philosophy of evolution in religion as in everything else. 



