36 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



" George Wesson Hawes, sou of Rev. Alfred Hawes and Clarissa 

 P. Partridge, was born December 31, 1849, at Marion, lud., where bis 

 father was engaged in missionary labor. But a small portion of his 

 life, however, was spent in his native place, as both his parents died 

 when he was quite young, in consequence of which the family was 

 broken up, and he removed to Worcester, Mass., where he was taken 

 care of and brought up by kind friends. His early education and prep- 

 aration for the Sheffield Scientific School was obtained in the public 

 scliools of Worcester. In 1865 he became a member of the Sheffield Sci- 

 entific School at New Haven, where he remained two years, at the end of 

 which time he went to Boston to go into business. Business life, how- 

 ever, did not at all suit him, as his natural love for science and investi- 

 gation and the acquirement of knowledge for its own sake was unusually 

 strong, so that, despite a very flattering offer to remain in Boston, in 

 1871 he returned to ISTew Haven, and graduated from the Sheffield 

 Scientific School in 1873.* The year after graduation he was Prof. S. 

 W. Johnson's private assistant in his laboratory at New Haven. At 

 the beginning of the college year 1873, he became assistant to Prof. 

 Geo. J. Brush, and instructor in mineralogy and blowpipe in the Shef- 

 field Scientific School, a position which he filled very successfully and 

 uninterruptedly until 1878, and with some intermissions until the end 

 of 1880. His duties in this position were very congenial to his tastes 

 and allowed him to devote considerable time to his favorite studies 

 and lay a permanent foundation for his after work. It was during the 

 early i)ortion of this period that microscopic lithology began to come 

 into prominence, and he was among the first in this country to" study 

 that subject carefully and thoroughly, and so impressed was ho with its , 

 possibilities that he made it his specialty and during the remainder of 

 his life gave it his best efforts, doing all in his power to aid in its devel- 

 opment. He was so successful that at the time of his death he was the 

 recognized authority ujjon the subject in this country. In the spring 

 of 1878, he went abroad and spent the summer semester at Breslau, 

 under Prof. A. Von Laslaux, studying chieflj^ microscopic lithology. The 

 winter of 1878-'79 was spent at New Haven, and in the spring of 1879 

 he again went abroad and remained until June, 1880. During this visit 

 he divided his time between mineralogy and crystallography^ at Bonn, 

 with Professor Vcm Eath, and lithology at Heidelberg, with Professor 

 Eosenbusch, from whom he won golden opinions. Before returning he 

 took the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the latter university. The 

 remainder of 1880 was spent at New Haven, but at the end of November 

 he was appointed a special agent of the tenth census to investigate the 

 quarry industry of the United States, and on the 1st of January, 1881, 

 curator of the geological department in the National Museum, which 

 occasioned his removal to Washington, D. C. 



* The summer of 1872 was passed at Eastport, Maine, one of the party of the 

 United States Fish Commission, then prosecuting its fishery investigations in the 

 waters of the Bay of Fundy. 



