296 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



geology led him to join, nominally as surgeon, but in reality as geolo- 

 gist, the exijloring party sent out under the command of Lieutenant 

 Robert S. Williamson to examine the country between San Fran- 

 cisco and the Columbia River, and the result of his work appears in 

 the sixth volume of the Pacific Railroad Surveys, published by the 

 government in 1857. He next joined the expedition under Lieutenant 

 Ives to explore the Colorado, and spent nearly a year at the mouth 

 of the Grand Cafion in studying the geology and natural history of 

 that territory. His observations formed the most interesting material 

 that was gathered by the expedition, and more than one half of the 

 Report upon the Colorado River, published by the government in 

 1861, was written by him; and it was doubtless the interest aroused 

 by this account that led Major Powell, ten years later, to make his 

 famous explorations of the great canons of the Colorado. 



During the war of the Rebellion, Professor Newberry was one of 

 the most efficient directors of the United States Sanitary Commission. 

 After the war was over, he accepted the Chair of Geology and Palaeon- 

 tology at Columbia College, and discharged the duties until December, 

 1890, when a sudden stroke of paralysis incapacitated him for further 

 work. From this attack he partially recovered, but it was the begin- 

 ning of the end. Professor Newberry was elected an Associate Fellow 

 of the Academy on March 9, 1887. 



The death of Sir Richard Owen removes from the ranks of English 

 men of science one who has been a prominent figure for over sixty 

 years. Born in 1804, his life has covered almost the whole of a cen- 

 tury remarkable for its scientific achievements. Already, in 1851, 

 when the writer first met him, he had published his famous catalogue 

 of the Hunterian Museum, and done the larger part of the work 

 which has rendered him so illustrious as a physiologist and anatomist. 

 Although at times regarded as overbearing by his immediate associates, 

 he was all kindness to a stranger, and I shall never forget our pleas- 

 ant intercourse. He held in very high esteem our own distinguished 

 comparative anatomist, the late Jeffries Wyman, by whom I was in- 

 troduced to his notice. The last few years he has lived in retirement 

 at Sheen Lodge, Richmond Park, granted him by the royal family, by 

 whom he was highly esteemed, and his death at nearly ninety is simply 

 the natural close of a completed career. Owen was elected a Foreign 

 Honorary Member of this Academy on November 14, 1855, and is the 

 oldest name on our honorary list with one exception, — Pascual de 

 Gayangos, elected in 1842. 



