academy of sconces] ANCESTRY AND YOUTH 9 



and in silence by the grave of a trusted friend. A sincere interest is aroused by every item that 

 teaches something of his habit of thought, something of his inner nature, something of the power- 

 ful and beautiful personality that so greatly aided the progress of geology in America and that 

 endeared itself so warmly to all bis associates. 



Unhappily, entries in the diaries are for the most part colorless records of fact, with very 

 few expressions of opinion or of feeling. There are occasional blank periods, and these are pro- 

 longed when the diary was replaced by field notebooks during many seasons of work in the West. 

 Annual summaries of travels and other leading topics are found in many of the later books. Men- 

 tion is frequently made of stops on journeys westward or eastward at Rochester to see parents or 

 an elder brother; or at Jackson, Mich., to see a sister; but there is nothing written to indicate the 

 warm affection that united the diminishing family. Instead of drifting apart in later years by 

 reason of separated residence, the survivors seemed to grow closer and closer together. Brief 

 extracts from the diaries will be found on later pages, where they occasionally serve to fix the 

 dates of journeys and or to clear up matters that would otherwise remain obscure. The pocket 

 diaries served also as cash accounts, in which items were faithfully entered for many years even 

 to such detail as "car fare— .05"; indeed, in later years, the diaries contain little more than 

 records of receipts and expenditures. The entries were regularly transferred to a carefully kept 

 set of account books through most of Gilbert's life. A payment that closed or "squared" an 

 account was marked in the diaries by a small rectangle. But in spite of all care, the entry of a 

 small sum, usually less than a dollar, as "unaccounted for," not infrequently was needed when a 

 balance was struck; a new start with cash on hand would then be made, headed "O. H." 



Among items of larger interest are the subjects of papers at scientific meetings and of occa- 

 sional lectures at colleges and elsewhere. Thus it is found that Gilbert's study of the Mohawk 

 gorge remained in his mind, for an entry regarding it was made in a diary nearly six years later 

 in Washington, February 7, 1874: "Evening G. & G. Soc. spoke on the Cohoes Cedars as time 

 data." The "G. & G. Soc." is believed to have been an informal gathering of geologists and 

 geographers; but as to that and many other allusions-noted in Gilbert's brief records of long- 

 gone years, positive information is lacking. 



PREPARATION OF THIS MEMOIR. 



Besides the half century of diaries and a large number of published reports and essays, 

 many of Gilbert's field notebooks and more than a score of volumes of his press-copy letter books 

 have been looked over in the preparation of this memoir; and in addition to these sources a large 

 amount of personal material, from which many selections have been made, has been contributed 

 by his friends and correspondents. This material has been extremely helpful, and its value 

 is here gratefully acknowledged. The sources of passages thus secured are, however, seldom 

 indicated ; indeed, many extracts and quotations are not given as such but are welded into the 

 text, because it is felt that attention should be concentrated upon the subject of the memoir 

 and that distractions should be as few as possible. A similar principle was followed by Gilbert 

 himself in his memoir of G. H. Cook, State geologist of New Jersey, in the preparation of which 

 he borrowed freely from a number of sources, yet in which "marks of quotation are omitted 

 because consistency would demand their use with a very large number of parts of sentences." 



Gilbert's field notebooks and his official letters have been of great assistance in providing 

 authentic record of his activities. Some of his personal letters, submitted by the intimate 

 friends to whom they were written, have been even more valuable. Looking over these sources 

 is like bringing the dead to life again. His written words conjure up his voice; his sen- 

 tences recall his manner of talking; a humorous phrase brings the echo of his jovial laughter; 

 when a reference to some past sorrow is encountered, it is as if the veil which time lets fall over 

 the sad events of a long life were lifted, and as if the dulled grief were sharpened into pain again. 

 But upon personal matters of this kind, meant by the writer only for the intimate friends to 

 whom they were told, the veil falls again. Deeply as certain times of unhappiness were im- 

 pressed upon Gilbert's inner self, frankly as they were spoken of to a very few, they were never 

 made known to the greater number of his associates and they must now lie buried with him; 



