402 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



WALTER GOULD DAVIS (1851-1919). 



Fellow in Class II, Section 1, 1894. 



The meteorological service of the Argentine Republic will be the 

 enduring monument of Walter Gould Davis, whose death on April 30, 

 1919, at his old homestead in Danville, Vt., remo\'ed one of the world's 

 best-known and most highly respected meteorologists. 



Mr. Davis was born on September 28, 1851, in the house at Danville 

 in which he died. His father, Walter Davis, was a successful farmer, 

 and his mother, Achsa Gould Davis, who was a school teacher before 

 her marriage, had strong literary and mathematical tastes. Walter 

 Gould Davis was an only child. A "Wanderlust" was in him from his 

 early years, and his desire to see other countries was as keen as it was 

 unusual in the quiet farming community in which his youth was spent. 

 He started his professional life as a constructing engineer on the rail- 

 road between St. Johnsbury and Cambridge, Vermont (1870-1872), 

 and as the result of his own efforts he was able, by reading and study, to 

 fit himself for the position of Chief Engineer of the railroad which, 

 between 1872 and 1876, was being constructed through the famous 

 Crawford Notch. This responsible post he held until the work was 

 completed, when, in 1876, he went to South America, to satisfy his 

 desire to see other lands and also with the purpose of putting his engi- 

 neering experience to use in new countries. 



It was not, however, as an engineer but as a meteorologist that 

 Walter Gould Davis became known to scientific men the world over. 

 On his arrival in Argentina he was given a three months' trial as a 

 computer in the Astronomical Observatory, and was later made 

 Second Assistant to Dr. Benjamin Apthorp Gould, who founded the 

 Astronomical Observatory at Cordoba, and, in 1873, established the 

 Argentine Meteorological Service, which was installed in the Astro- 

 nomical Observatory, the two organizations being independent of one 

 another, although under the same director. Dr. Gould continued in 

 charge of this service until towards the end of 1884, when he left 

 Argentina. In 1885, Mr. Davis succeeded Dr. Gould as director, con- 

 tinuing in that position until his retirement in May, 1915, after thirty 

 years of active work. 



