academy of sciences] CHIEF GEOLOGIST, NATIONAL SURVEY 169 



In matters of this kind as in all others, Gilbert always strove to reduce disputes, for he 

 held that "controversy is bad for science, because with many people its quarrels will make a 

 deeper impression than its achievements." He always conducted the administration of his 

 office in a purely impersonal and scientific spirit; it has been well said of him that he never 

 played politics, and never practiced that sort of diplomacy which shades off by insensible 

 degrees into duplicity. He enjoyed giving encouragement, but the expression of censure was 

 disagreeable to him. Yet he coidd be direct and definite enough, if in his judgment the occa- 

 sion required it. In one instance he was under the necessity of instructing a geologist, whose 

 office work was far behind his field work, to finish his old problems before taking up new ones, 

 and his letter on the subject was direct and specific. One of his first official acts was to see 

 that certain existing appointments should be brought into accordance with the law governing 

 those matters ; for it appears that some of the survey geologists had assistants who were classed 

 as "messengers" and who as such had not been required to pass a civil service examination, but 

 who were in reality acting as clerks and as such should have been examined before their ap- 

 pointment. Although Gilbert's official correspondence was as a rule gentle and genial, in this 

 exigency his letters peremptorily instructed the offending geologists to discharge their "mes- 

 sengers" at the end of the month. 



It was not alone the geologists and assistant geologists of the survey who received helpful 

 suggestions from the chief geologist ; the director himself was repeatedly aided by good counsel 

 from his chosen lieutenant. Thus, although scientific results interested him much more than 

 the administrative plans by which the results were attained, it was Gilbert who advised Powell 

 to omit all mention of the outcome of geological investigations from the administrative reports 

 which form the first chapter of the annual survey volumes, and to limit such chapters solely 

 to brief statements of official action ; and it will be told later that, when various practical matters 

 concerning the preparation of geological maps came up for decision, it was largely Gilbert's 

 sagacity which determined the policy of the survey regarding them, although Powell, who was 

 finally responsible, properly announced as his own the policy that he had adopted largely on 

 Gilbert's recommendation. In one matter, however, Gilbert's judgment was not followed; 

 this was, as above noted, the question of transforming the shaded or hachured maps of some of 

 the earlier departmental surveys into the contoured maps of the national survey without revi- 

 sion in the field. Gilbert advised against so fictitious a topographic method, but unfortunately 

 another opinion prevailed and some very poor contour maps were published. 



CRITICISM OF MANUSCRIPTS 



One of the most fatiguing of the chief geologist's tasks was the revision of manuscript 

 reports, preparatory to advising their authors concerning the changes that seemed desirable 

 before publication. It was probably his experience in these quasi-editorial duties that caused 

 him to reply to a college teacher who asked his advice as to the subjects which should be em- 

 phasized in preparing students for work on the survey: 



Their geology is all right; teach them to write better English. 



An excellent example of his manner in suggesting rather than in ruling that a submitted 

 manuscript needed further attention from its author is found in a letter to a divisional geologist, 

 as follows: 



The manuscript is pervaded by the originality of your amanuensis, and I fear that our editor, in eliminating 

 that, may fail to attain that combination of accuracy and grace which would result from your own careful 

 revision. 



Surely the geologist who submitted the manuscript can not have had a heart so like the 

 rocks he recommended for highway construction as to withstand such an appeal. "Originality 

 of your amanuensis" is a charming phrase! 



Gilbert's careful consideration of the feeling of authors whose manuscripts were adversely 

 criticized is well shown in a letter addressed to a semiattached worker, when a report was sent 

 back to him after it had gone through the survey mill: 



Having expressed my views with all possible freedom above, it occurs to me that you may possibly not be 

 used to it, and so I add, by way of explanation, that it is a widely prevalent custom in the Survey for authors 

 to abuse one another's work before it is printed just as much as possible. We believe that in that way we avoid 

 the necessity of a certain amount of criticism afterwards. 



