502 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The city of Philadelphia was then au important scientific 

 center. A number of geologists resided there, and were wont to 

 hold occasional meetings. At last it seemed desirable to convene 



a larger and more general 

 assemblage ; and on the 2d 

 day of April, 1840, about 

 twenty geologists, including 

 nearly all the most promi- 

 nent ones in America, met 

 there and organized " The 

 Association of American Ge- 

 ologists." Edward Hitch- 

 cock presided, and Lewis C. 

 Beck was secretary. Of the 

 founders of this association 

 who attended this first meet- 

 ing, three venerable men still 

 survive — James Hall, of Al- 

 bany ; Bela Hubbard,* of De- 

 troit ; and Martin H. Boyd, of 

 Coopersburg, Lehigh Coun- 

 ty, Pennsylvania. Several of 

 the older States were repre- 

 sented, including Massachu- 

 setts, New York, Pennsyl- 

 vania, Delaware, and Virginia. Of the Western States, Michigan 

 alone had then instituted a geological survey ; and Bela Hubbard 

 and Douglas Houghton traveled that long journey together from 

 Michigan to Philadelphia. It took them an entire week, travel- 

 ing day and night by the most direct route; and the roads in 

 Ohio were so muddj'' that the passengers often had to alight and 

 assist in pulling the stage out of the mud. 



The next year (1841) the geologists met again in Philadelphia, 

 and many new members were added. In 1842 the meeting was 

 held in Boston, where several naturalists came into the associa- 

 tion, and the name was changed, mainly through the influence of 

 Amos Binney and Augustus A. Gould, to '' The American Associ- 

 ation of Geologists and Naturalists." Subsequent annual meet- 

 ings were held in Albany, Washington, New Haven, New York, 

 and Boston. 



Several years after the association was founded the chemists 

 and physicists proposed to join, and in 1848 another meeting was 



Jame«< Hall, suiviving tounder ot the Associa- 

 tion of American Geologists and ot the 

 A. A. A. S., and oldest surviving past presi- 

 dent, Albany, 1856. 



* When this article went to the printer Bela Hubbard was dangerously ill, and his death 

 occurred on June 13th. Recent letters from him have furnished some of the most inter- 

 esting of these reminiscences. 



