REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1910. 71 



and landscape gardening, and his ability in this line is attested by the 

 beauty of the University grounds at Berkeley, which were developed 

 under his superintendence. His knowledge of the Pacific coast 

 mollusks was profound, and a long list of papers on this topic and on 

 the shells of Florida was the result. He also contributed extensively 

 on horticulture and gardening. He was an enthusiastic supporter of 

 the California Academy of Sciences in its early days, and became a 

 member of numerous other scientific societies both at home and 

 abroad. 



Dr. Stearns was a man of sanguine temperament, with a lively 

 sense of humor, and high moral character. His reading was wide, 

 his learning never obtrusive, his interest in art, literature, and all 

 good causes intense. He w^as a stanch friend and, for a righteous 

 object, ever ready to sacrifice his own material interests. 



Dr. Charles Abiathar White, associate in paleontology, who had 

 been connected with the National Museum and its collections of 

 invertebrate fossils since 1877, died on June 29, 1910. He was born 

 in North Dighton, Massachusetts, on January 26, 1826. At the age 

 of 12 he removed with his father's family to Burlington, Iowa, where 

 he resided until 1864. Here his natural taste for scientific subjects 

 was early manifested, and with little special training or guidance he 

 began to investigate the natural history of the interesting frontier 

 region in which he grew up. It is doubtless true that the rich fos- 

 siliferous deposits of the neighborhood had great influence in direct- 

 ing his attention to paleontology and stratigraphic geology, which 

 became his life work and in which he gained well-merited eminence 

 as an earnest, philosophical student. After graduating from Rush 

 Medical College, Chicago, Dr. White began the practice of medicine 

 in Iowa City in 1864, but his zeal and ability in scientific research 

 were soon recognized and he gladly abandoned the medical profes- 

 sion when, in 1866, he was appointed State geologist. In the fol- 

 lowing year, while still continuing the State survey, he became pro- 

 fessor of natural history in the Iowa State University. He remained 

 in charge of the State geological survey until it was suspended, in 

 1870, and continued in the university professorship until he was 

 called to a similar chair in Bowdoin College in 1873. 



Dr. White removed to Washington in 1875, but while still at 

 Bowdoin he began his work for the United States Government by 

 preparing an extensive report on the invertebrate fossils collected 

 by Wheeler's survey west of the one hundredth meridian. He was 

 successively a member of Powell's Survey of the Rocky Mountain 

 Region, of Hayden's Surve}" of the Territories, and of the United 

 States Geological Survey. This service was continuous until 1892, 

 except for a period between 1879 and 1882, when he was on the paid 

 stafi^ of the National Museum as curator of invertebrate fossils. 



