vi CHANCE— BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF J. P. LESLEY. [April 6, 



and instructive. His presence at these meetings was also valued 

 for the many wise suggestions which he made relating to the con- 

 duct of its business. 



In the practical affairs of life he was keenly alive to the value 

 of modern methods. He was among the first to use the card index 

 for general indexing purposes, he was the originator of stadia meas- 

 urement surveying in governmental work in this country, he in- 

 vented a method of shading topographical contour-line maps to get 

 relief effects, and devised several methods of constructing geologic 

 and topographic models which he regarded; as the only satisfactory 

 means of showing the relation between geologic structure and topo- 

 graphy. He strenuously urged the construction of such models on 

 equal horizontal and vertical scales, deprecating the then common 

 practice of exaggerating the vertical scale. 



Possibly his success in life was in a measure due to the cour- 

 ageous, fearless expression of his opinions and convictions that 

 marked his advocacy of any cause, and to that equipoise which 

 enabled him to listen patiently and considerately to those who might 

 differ with him, although he seemed at the outset intuitively to 

 master any subject, be it never so complex, and at a glance to 

 grasp the whole range of possible combinations, deductions and 

 interpretations, just as a great general will with a single sweep of 

 the eye, pick out the strategic points on a field of battle. 



He was naturally a scholar in the broadest sense of the word, 

 for aside from his passion for science, and pleasure in work, he 

 loved learning, taking delight in academic studies and spending all 

 of the time he could take from his work in the material sciences, 

 in these pursuits. He had marked ability as a linguist and aptitude 

 for the study of languages and would have attained eminence as a 

 philologist or egyptologist, had not his bent been more toward the 

 natural sciences and his time so occupied with geologic work that 

 he was unable to pursue these studies except, as he said, " as a 

 recreation " and *' to rest an overworked brain." 



We cannot hope to record here anything approaching a biography 

 such as his achievements justly merit and must rest content to briefly 

 summarize the major works of his life with such dates and facts as 

 the writer has been able to verify. 



