academy op scences] PERSONAL RELATIONS 201 



prompted in part by the knowledge that authors are naturally much interested in the reception 

 of their essays by competent readers, and that their interest is best satisfied by the direct com- 

 munication of their readers' opinions; but whatever he said in this way did not go beyond his 

 genuine feeling, and his feeling was not guided by any ulterior motive whatever. Indeed his 

 letters of commendation are, in their frankness and directness, of a piece with the comments, 

 favorable and unfavorable alike, which he, when acting as censor for the Geological Society of 

 America, habitually sent to the author of a censored manuscript as well as to the publication 

 committee. 



It was not only during his more active years that Gilbert pursued the genial habit of writing 

 letters of encouragement as occasion offered ; the habit was continued to the end of his life. He 

 wrote in 1916 to a younger physiographer from whom he had received the notes of a hurried 

 visit to a locality that he himself proposed to examine more at leisure : 



You certainly have a rapid-fire brain and note book, to get so much during a rapid transit. I am specially 

 appreciative of such qualities because my own "reaction time" is lengthening. 



And in the same year a geologist, who during his college days had studied Gdbert's reports 

 as models of what one should aspire to produce, received from the master whom he esteemed 

 so highly the following comment on a report of his own: 



I take the liberty, as your senior by at least a generation, to congratulate you not only on the importance 

 of your contribution but on the effectiveness of its presentation. 



The younger man might have, with good right, regarded that statement as an accolade. 

 It may not be given to anyone to equal Gilbert as an investigator, but many whose best efforts 

 fall short of his may to their own greater happiness try to practice his gentle art of giving direct 

 expression to their pleasure in the work of others. 



LOST IN PHILADELPHIA 



It may surprise the reader to learn that a man as experienced as Gilbert in finding his way 

 about in an unknown country should have once been lost in the city of brotherly rectangulari- 

 tude, yet such was the case; and he enjoyed telling how it happened as an illustration of the 

 mental process by which a traveler keeps his orientation in new surroundings. It was on the 

 occasion of his coming by train from New York to Philadelphia late one afternoon, when per- 

 haps from falling asleep on the way he did not notice that the Delaware was crossed at Trenton; 

 but saw on approaching Philadelphia after dark half an hour later that a river was then crossed 

 as the city was entered. Assuming that this river was the Delaware and that he was therefore 

 crossing westward from New Jersey into Pennsylvania — although as a matter of fact he was 

 crossing the Schuylkill eastward — he set his mental compass accordingly, kept his bearings as 

 he turned a few street corners on the way to the hotel and a few corridor corners on his way to 

 a room, and turned in for the night. The next morning, which it is to be presumed was cloudy, 

 he set out, still guided by his mental compass and asking no question, although he was new to 

 the place, to have a look at the Delaware; and reversing his course of the evening before walked 

 as he supposed eastward, but really westward, until a river was reached. On arriving there, 

 with the supposed north or upstream part of the watercourse on his left and the supposed south 

 or downstream part on his right, he saw to his utter astonishment that all the shipping was on 

 the upstream side of a bridge that had no draw, and that no vessels were to be seen on the other 

 or ocean ward side; and for a few moments he was literally "lost." It was only after inquiry 

 that he could locate himself on the Schuylkill instead of on the Delaware, and much conscious 

 effort was then needed to find himself by rotating his system of coordinates 180°. 



HOME AFFAIRS 



How far the unsettlement of Gilbert's home life distracted him from larger scientific achieve- 

 ment can not be told, but the continued illness and increasing inability of his wife must have 

 made exhausting drafts on his sympathies and continually disturbed his peace of mind ; for from 

 the time of her loss of health in 1881 until her death 18 years later his care and protection of her 

 never diminished. In the meantime the two sons had, after their mother became unable to care 



