academy of scbnces] jj g GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 121 



quence. His intention on returning to Washington was at once to complete the work on Lake 

 Bonneville, but he was continually distracted by "various minor duties," as is shown by brief 

 paragraphs in successive administrative records. Thus in the third annual report of the survey, 

 1881-82, Gilbert states that a part of his time has been occupied with (1) maps and engravings 

 of the Lake Bonneville report; (2) the manuscript of the report; (3) the report on Lake Lahontan 

 by Russell; (4) the literature of the Great Basin and of other continental basins; and (5) baro- 

 metric hypsometry. As to the third of these tasks, Gilbert explains that the "Sketch of the 

 geological history of Lake Lahontan," published on pages 195 to 235 of the same annual volume, 

 was written by Russell in camp, but that at Russell's request " the paper was revised and edited 

 by me, so that I share with him the responsibility of many of the details." In spite of the work 

 implied in the five tasks above named, a significant postscript shows that they were often subor- 

 dinated to other duties: "My own time has largely been occupied by various minor duties con- 

 nected with the general work of the office." The fourth annual report, 1882-83, tells a similar 

 story: "My own time has been largely devoted to duties of a general nature connected with 

 administrative work of the central office." Hence the report on Bonneville, for the completion 

 of which Gilbert was nominally ordered back to Washington, was continually delayed. 



A western journey in the summer of 1883 must have been a welcome interruption of office 

 work. Russell being at that time still engaged in studies that had been planned by the division 

 of the Great Basin, Gilbert went out to see how the work was progressing. He left Washington 

 early in June, spent a few weeks in the Bonneville area where certain supplementary observa- 

 tions were needed for his own report, and then after meeting Russell at Mono Lake, on the 

 desert side of the Sierra Nevada near the mid-eastern boundary of California, went farther south 

 to examine the geology of the Inyo earthquake district in Owens Valley. It may be inferred 

 that special attention was given during the stop at Mono Lake to the great moraines of ancient 

 Sierran glaciers and the deposits left by the expanded predecessor of the present lake; for the 

 single example of a moraine that reaches the Bonneville shore lines does not clearly exhibit its 

 relations to the lake deposits. Five days were afterwards spent in the mountains, where Mount 

 Lyell was climbed; a few statements then made concerning forms of glacial origin will be 

 quoted in connection with Gilbert's work in the Sierra Nevada, 20 years later. 



On the return journey some days were again spent at and near Salt Lake City; and nearly 

 a week was given for no recorded reason to a district in eastern Utah, where the Rio Grande 

 Western Railway runs not far south of the great escarpment of the Book Cliffs, between the 

 Green and Grand Rivers, which there approach each other on their way to unite in the Colorado. 

 This must have been the occasion when Gilbert learned that the summits of the Henry Moun- 

 tains, about 80 miles away to the southwest, are visible from a rise of ground a short distance 

 to one side of the railway line ; for eight years later, when the excursion party of the International 

 Geological Congress that had been in session at Washington was making its western circuit, 

 Gilbert had the excursion train stopped in the desert not far from Green River crossing while 

 he led a small number of the more active members a rapid march to the view point and back. 



The work of the following winter is stated in the fifth annual report of the survey, 1883-84, 

 at first in indirect, third-person style : 



The writer has continued the preparation of his long-delayed memoir on Lake Bonneville, and has specially 

 arranged a chapter of it, "The topographic features of lake shores," for publication in this volume. A portion 

 of his time has been occupied with the discussion of the influence of terrestrial rotation on the character of river 

 valleys and with the elaboration of a plan for the subject bibliography of geologic literature. 



And then, in reporting to the director the suspension of the Salt Lake City office he adds, 

 not a petulant complaint but, as if his feelings could not be wholly suppressed, a patient regret 

 in the more courageous first-person style : 



While I recognize fully the considerations which led to the closing of this investigation of the Great Basin, 

 and while the wisdom of your decision is unquestioned, I yet find myself unable to lay the work aside without 

 the tribute of regret and the expression of a hope that it may some day be resumed by another if not by myself. 



Thus saying farewell to it, he points out three lines of further inquiry : The brines of the 

 Great Basin and their products, an economic problem; the records of extinct lakes in the 

 southern part of the basin, a climatic problem; and the deformation of the Bonneville floor as 



