GEORGE BASSETT CLARK. 361 



greater number of his fellow emigrants, and, after several months of 

 adventure and hardship, he returned, richer in experience than in 

 worldly goods. In his journey to California, he crossed the Isthmus 

 of Panama in the manner then customary, by a boat voyage up the 

 Chagres River and by difficult paths across the hills beyond. On one 

 occasion, his guides, whose language he could not speak, armed him 

 and themselves with clubs, and set out with him upon an expedition 

 the purpose of which he could not conjecture. It appeared that their 

 object was peaceable, being only to obtain a supply of provisions in 

 the way of legitimate trade, but that the clubs were necessary to de- 

 fend the party against the dogs who had to be encountered before the 

 trading could begin. In California itself provisions were still more 

 difficult to obtain, and when obtained were of the worst quality ; 

 moreover, the first part of the return voyage was attended by many 

 depressing circumstances. The excitement of travel and adventure was 

 probably overbalanced in Mr. Clark's mind by the painful impression 

 made upon his kindly nature by the scenes which he had witnessed, 

 for in after life he appeared to dislike recalling the incidents of his 

 expedition. 



Upon his return, he resumed the work which had most interested 

 him in his boyhood, and opened a shop in East Cambridge for making 

 and repairing instruments. He was soon joined in this business by 

 his father and by his younger brother, although his father still kept 

 his Boston studio open for several years. Mr. George B. Clark's 

 personal history from this time is in great measure that of the firm of 

 Alvan Clark and Sons, which he had been so largely instrumental in 

 founding. The business was continued in East Cambridge until 1860, 

 when it was removed to the situation in Cambridgeport where it is 

 still conducted. 



While Mr. George B. Clark was thoroughly familiar with the 

 purely optical portion of the work undertaken by the firm, the part 

 of that work which ordinarily depended chiefly upon him was that of 

 providing the mountings of telescopes, and of planning and making 

 the metallic parts of scientific apparatus of various kinds. In this 

 work he was highly ingenious, and his ingenuity was, if possible, sur- 

 passed by his perseverance. He was frequently called upon to contrive 

 means for the execution of new plans which had occurred to men of 

 science, and he could not be defeated by the mechanical difficulties, 

 which were often great, in the way of the desired result, when he had 

 once assured himself that the principles involved in the plans were 

 correct. With a mere verbal description, or at most, a rough sketch, 



