280 GROVE KARL GILBERT— DAVIS [MEM0IES [^rxxi L 



at the time of the visit on seeing that he felt a responsibility for their having a "good time"; 

 although they may also have been a bit scandalized by his method of showing them attention, 

 for between the acts of a play to which the three went together he drew forth from his pocket 

 a white paper bag of generous size well-filled with heart-shaped candies of a self -announcing 

 peppermint flavor, and, oh, horrors! he expected the young ladies to eat thereof in public! 

 Their only consolation for this well-meant but ill-directed solicitude on his part was to say to 

 each other afterwards in private: "He thinks we are still girls." But one at least of these 

 grown-up girls must have considered his thoughtfulness touchingly appropriate when, not 

 long afterwards, she received from him as a wedding gift a piece of silver that her mother had 

 given to his wife at his wedding in Cambridge nearly 40 years before. How few geologists, 

 how few men there are of any profession, to whom a wedding gift retains its individuality for 

 so long a time! 



Gilbert's seventieth birthday, on May 6, 1913, was spent quietly with the Merriams in 

 Washington. A letter comments briefly on the simple celebration of the occasion: 



Yes, the mile post was the 70th. Four years ago I didn't expect to make it, but now there's no telling 

 how many more. The day's celebration included a cake, and a telegram from Ithaca. Friends here pland a 

 surprise party, but Dr. M. discouraged the notion, so I escaped. 



Parts of the summers from 1912 to 1915 were spent by Gilbert with his sister, Mrs. Loomis, 

 at Jackson, Mich. In the first of these vacations he tried his hand at driving an electric auto- 

 mobile, and ran "a rather wobbly mile," but was soon competent to take his sister out for 

 her errands. He combined this exercise with study: 



I have done quite a lot of geological reading while doing the waiting stunts that come in as part of a 

 chauffeur's duty. 



During the following late winter in Washington he had occasional practice in driving cars 

 belonging to his friends, and thought he could soon learn to run one without too much strain 

 even in a city; but was discouraged on discovering that after one of his trials he made only 

 9 at a game of billiards against the 50 of an opponent whom he had beaten the day before. 

 In the summer of 1914 the stay at Jackson was followed by an excursion with his sister to 

 Niagara, where they had the company of his younger son, Roy, and to Ithaca for a visit to the 

 Comstocks. Journeys across the continent were repeated in the following years. 



If Gilbert felt that "a march had been stolen on him" in giving his name to the salt-water 

 gulf that for a time occupied the basin of Lake Ontario, it is clear that he would not tolerate 

 an involuntary act of what he called "peak piracy" by which Gilbert Peak in the Uinta Range 

 of Utah was declared in a Survey Bulletin issued in 1915 to be named in his honor, whereas 

 it had in reality been named for an Army officer who had been stationed at Salt Lake City 

 years before. He therefore addressed a formal letter to the director of the survey, setting 

 forth the facts and adding: 



It seems to me undesirable that the Survey of which I am a member perpetuate an error of this sort, and 

 I write to suggest, (1) that the passage be marked for omission when the Bulletin goes to a second edition, 

 and (2) that the fact of the error be brought to the attention of members of the Survey who are likely to write 

 of the Uinta mountains. 



Fortunately there was no reason which he could allege for removing his name from the 

 superb mountain in Alaska to which it had been attached by one of his many admirers among 

 the explorers of that region. 



The Great War in Europe, the beginning of which he believed was based on a false excuse 

 and the end of which he did not five to see, was to Gilbert so depressing a matter that he did 

 not like to let this thoughts dwell upon it. He hated strife and was essentially a pacifist by 

 nature; yet as the war went on and the United States was drawn into it, he was, like many 

 others, much more in sympathy with our Government's action than he had been when, nearly 

 20 years before, we declared war against Spain; for Spain had offered to submit our dispute 

 with her to arbitration. He did what he could in buying Liberty bonds and in contributing 

 to the Red Cross and urged others to do the same. The problem of protecting our troop ships 

 against the attack of submarines aroused his inventive faculty, and he found his mind working 



