70 GROVE KARL GILBERT— DAVIS Vmmaa i^SS 



the wedding; but the Gilberts were represented by the groom alone. The wedding journey 

 was extended to Rochester where Thanksgiving Day was spent at the "Nutshell," and then 

 the pair went to Washington for the winter. The other two of the three bachelor contubernals 

 of the previous winter were invited, in the letters by which they were first informed of Gilbert's 

 defection, to continue the plan of house partnership; but they, with a prudence as great as the 

 generosity that had prompted the invitation, declined on the grounds, facetiously urged, that 

 the fourth partner was a stranger to them, that they had not been consulted in choosing her, 

 and that they could therefore assume no responsibility for the new enterprise; but they appear 

 to have enjoyed the opportunity of frequent and friendly visits at the benedict's home. 



Washington was thereafter Gilbert's residence, except for a year, 1880-81, when, after 

 the organization of the United States Geological Survey, he resided in Salt Lake City in charge 

 of the division of the Great Basin. During the summer of 1875, which he spent in the high 

 plateaus of Utah, as will be told below, his wife was with her relatives in Winchendon, Mass., 

 where Gilbert rejoined her in mid-September, and where their first child, Betsy Bent Gilbert, 

 was born on October 13. Shortly after returning to Washington a month later, boarding in 

 the city was exchanged for housekeeping in Le Droit Park, a suburb frequented by survey 

 members of that time. There, as before, Gilbert, always cordial and hospitable to his many 

 friends, led a quiet and simple life. The diaries of this period contain occasional items which 

 show that the exploring geologist could, when the time came for it, attend faithfully to domestic 

 duties, perhaps all the more so because his means were restricted and his housekeeping was 

 necessarily on a very moderate scale. Like many another young husband, he opened a set of 

 books for double-entry accounts, but like very few others he continued to keep them regularly 

 for over 40 years. His last balance was struck with much labor a short time before his death. 

 In the Le Droit household the sums set aside for domestic expenses were charged to " Dame Dur- 

 den" or "D. D.," but unlike some other scientific husbands, Gilbert did not allow all the house 

 cares to fall on his wife so that he might be uninterrupted in his professional work. He took a 

 good share of responsibilities, as is indicated by many entries in his diary; for example, one 

 made shortly after the removal to Le Droit Park, which reads : " To-day we begin 3 pts. of cream 

 and 3}4 qts. of milk." It may therefore be fairly inferred that milk bills and all other bills were 

 closely scrutinized. He was devotedly fond of the little daughter, Bessie ; the affection that he 

 felt is recalled by items in the journal. January 14, 1S76: "Bessie 13 lbs.," and a few days 

 afterwards: "Rattle, 0.25." The following autumn when he was in the arid and empty plateau 

 country, a notebook bears the entry: "Bessie a year old today." These little touches are sad 

 reading in view of the heart-breaking grief that the father felt over the daughter's death six 

 years later. 



During the winter of 1875-76, Gilbert was caused much anxiety by the fatal illness of his 

 friend and brother-in-law, Archibald Marvine, "a conscientious, able, and vigorous geologist," 

 who had spent the previous summer as a member of the Hayden survey in the mountains of 

 Colorado; there, as Gilbert wrote in an obituary notice, a long season of "toil and privation in 

 that wilderness of canons, crags, and peaks undermined his health." After his death, on 

 March 2, Gilbert accompanied the widowed wife to the interment at Marvine's home in Auburn, 

 N. Y.; and thereafter extended to her and her affairs in Washington a most brotherly care. 

 Gilbert's first son, born December 6 of the same year, was given the name of this much esteemed 

 associate. 



With the increase of scientific opportunity that followed Gilbert's transfer from the 

 Wheeler to the Powell survey, as told in the following section, he took a more active part in 

 the intellectual life of Washington, and largely through the meetings of the Philosophical 

 Society of that city contributed a good share of information concerning his western field of 

 work to his fellow members. Among the topics that he treated are "Wind-drift erosion" in 

 1875; "Landslips and lake basins" in 1876; "Drainage system of the Black Hills," "Recent 

 history of Great Salt Lake," and the "Wasatch a growing mountain" in 1878; the "Kanab base 

 fine and a proposed new system of base measurement," and "Air currents on mountains slopes" 

 in 1879; and "Relations of Permian beds to the Aubrey limestone" in 1880. Unfortunately 

 the printed record of these communications is very brief, but some of their subjects will be 

 recognized as being fully set forth in his official reports. 



