28 NINTH REPORT. 



ISRAEL COOK RUSSELL. 



Since the last meeting of the Academy there has passed from among us one 

 who had always been a leading and interested particijjant in the discussions 

 concerning the welfare of our organization and its activities since its foun- 

 dation. 



Israel Cook Russell, the subject of this brief memorial, was not only 

 known to the circle here, but as well, and possibly better, beyond these cir- 

 cvimscribed limits, as a writer of great ability and authority upon his chosen 

 suVjjects, as a scientific, thorough and careful student, as a daring explorer, 

 and as a teacher who was constantly striving to give his students the best 

 results of his own and others' work in geology and kindred subjects. 



He was born near Garratsville, N. Y., on December 10, 1852, and was 

 the son of Barnabas and Louisa Sherman (Cook) Russell, who were of New 

 England descent, and moved with his parents when twelve years of age to 

 Plainfield, N. J. His education followed the usual course; preparation for 

 college, first, at a high school, near his home in New York State, and after- 

 wards at the Hasbrook Institute, Jersey City, and a college course at the 

 University of the city of New York, from which he was graduated with the 

 degrees of A. B. and C. E., in 1872, after which he took a graduate course 

 at the Columbia School of Mines. 



His first scientific work after his college course was finished, was done 

 in 1874, while he was attached to the U. S. Transit of Venus Expedition 

 to New Zealand and Kerguelen Island, as photographer, acting, however, 

 in the capacity of naturalist as well. It was doubtless on this expedition 

 that he gained the experience in the art of photography which enabled him 

 to do so much most excellent photographic work in his later explorations. 



In 1876 he was appointed assistant professor of geology in the Columbia 

 School of Mines, resigning in 1878 to accept a position with the L^. S. Geo- 

 graphical survey west of the 100th meridian, and for a year, or more, was 

 engaged in geological work in New Mexico. In 1880, after returning 

 from a trip to Europe, he entered the United States Geological Survey and 

 was assigned to the Division of the Great Basin, in which his special work 

 eventually became the investigation of the Quarternary history of a series 

 of desert basins in Northern Nevada, and adjacent parts of California and 

 Oregon, and as the result of this work, he prepared a series of papers which 

 are classics, and secured for him high praise in this country and in Europe. 



After completion of this work he was assigned the investigation and map- 

 ping of portions of the Paleozoic formations in the southern Appalachian 

 region, and later prepared a report upon the Newark formation. In 1889 

 he made his first trip to Alaska, ascending the Yukon River, and crossed 

 the mountains southward to the Lynn Canal during the early part of winter. 

 This work was done under the auspices of the LT. S. Geological Survey in 

 connection with the work of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, which 

 was then surveying a portion of the eastern boundary of Alaska. 



The next two summers were also spent in Alaska, exploring Mt. St. Elias 

 and the adjacent region, and as a result of his studies upon the Malaspina 

 glacier, his very valuable contributions to glacial geology were made. In 



