48 PROCEEDINGS OF THE PHILADELPHIA MEETING 



War. Like many others, he was forced against his judgment and desire 

 to join the forces of secession. He was employed as geologic expert in 

 search for niter deposits and as chemist in the manufacture of medicines 

 and explosives. Probably the most interesting part of his autobiography 

 is that relating to the Civil War, with the story of his experiences during 

 the war and the succeeding period of reconstruction. Becoming discour- 

 aged with the conditions in the South, he and his brother John success- 

 fully applied for positions in the new University of California, and began 

 work there in 1869, teaching botany, zoolog}', and geology, without as- 

 sistance or laboratory appliances, 



Le Conte was a tine representative of the older group of eminent geolo- 

 gists who were self-taught and with knowledge in many departments of 

 science. The breadth of his interest is shown by an analysis of his list 

 of writings, which, as given in Christy's memoir, has 311 titles. Ex- 

 cluding repetitions or duplicate publication, the number is about 300, 

 Of these geology includes only 57, philosophy 48, physics (mostly optics) 

 48, biology and medicine 16, education 10, biography 6, zoology 4, soci- 

 ology and travel 3 each, and 5 unclassified, A corrected list of his writ- 

 ings in geology is here appended, making 63 titles, not including the 

 revisions of his text-books. 



That Le Conte's mind was of the philosophic type rather than the 

 scientific is shown not only by the wide variety and deductive character 

 of his writings, but also by the fact that he is probably better known to 

 the general public through his jihilosophic essays, chiefly on evolution, 

 than by his geologic work. His Elements of Geolog}% issued in 1878, 

 was for many years probably the most popular American treatise on the. 

 science and gave him his public reputation as a geologist. His favorite 

 theme in geology, origin of the continents and formation of mountains, 

 testifies to the philosophic bent of his mind. One of his first papers, in 

 1859 (fifth in the appended list), was on continent formation, and his 

 residence after 1869 in California greatly stimulated this line of thought. 

 At least one-third of all the titles in the list falls into geophysics. While 

 he was fond of life in the open and made several trips in the Cordilleras, 

 recording important observations, he was not an enthusiastic field student, 

 and his record of facts of observation is not large. If he had remained 

 during his life in South Carolina, it seems more than possible that his 

 philosophic bent might have kept him from reaching eminence in geology ; 

 but, being transplanted to the Cordilleran region, his geologic interest 

 was inevitable. The genesis of the Sierras and diastrophism were at- 

 tractive subjects for his keen intellect. Concerning his intellectual tastes, 

 he writes in his autobiography (pages 385-386, 387-388) : 



