856 ISRAEL COOK RUSSELL. 



2. Work as Government Geologist, 1877-1892. For a quarter of a 

 century he was a servant of the United States in the Geological Sur- 

 vey. And that was practically his sole occupation until 1892. He 

 ranked with Gilbert and Powell as one of the great geologists of the 

 early \ears of the Survey. Like them he was an explorer, like them 

 he had an admirable literary style. I remember he once said that it 

 was his custom never to write anything until the end of the day's 

 work. In this he was doubtless aided by his retentive memory. In 

 the relatively arid regions of the great West where geology was on a 

 large scale such a method was no doubt quite serviceable and ga^'e 

 to his work a literary quality which constant jottings cannot pretend 

 to have. But I remember well the shock it gave to one who, accus- 

 tomed to working in the mines and Michigan woods, would have been 

 utterly lost unless he had kept some sort of continuous notes. Ar- 

 tistic temperament was manifest in Russell not only in his literary 

 style but in his keen appreciation of the beauties of nature, which 

 he saw not only with the eye of the savant but with that of the 

 artist. His description of his ascent of Mt. St. Elias is interesting 

 to any one; his report of the Mono Lake region of California was so 

 vivid that a demand was made for a reprint of the report, to be paid 

 for by the residents as a tourist advertisement of the region, for which 

 purpose its beauties of style well fitted it. His artistic temperament 

 was also shown in his skill and success as a photographer. Many of 

 the illustrations of the U. S. Geological Survey which are reprinted in 

 the text books of geology will be found to have been taken by him. 

 He had the knack of knowing whether a photograph would really 

 show and bring out the scientific point which one can often see with 

 the naked eye so much better than in a photograph. He also took 

 pains to get something which would make his records not only of sci- 

 entific but also of artistic value. 



His artistic temperament also showed in a certain fastidiousness and 

 reserve which perhaps made him less successful as a teacher. To be 

 a popular teacher one must not be too fastidious or too critical of the 

 half-baked endeavors of the partly educated. And he had not much 

 of that superficial bonhommie which goes far toward making one 

 generally popular. 



3. At Ann Arbor. In 1892 he became Professor of Geology at the 

 University of Michigan and remained so the rest of his life. He 

 continued his connection with the U. S. Geological Survey after he 

 became Professor of Geology at Ann Arbor; being, however, em- 

 ployed upon various special problems, often connected with water 



