GEORGE DAVIDSON. 867 



conducted by Mr. Davidson in a temporary observatory set up in 

 Washington Square, San Francisco. Telegraphic signals were ex- 

 changed with Cambridge on twelve nights in February, March and 

 April, 1869. 



In June, 1895, Davidson resigned his position in the Coast Survey, 

 at the conclusion of fifty years of service. During the last twenty- 

 seven years of this period he was Assistant in Charge of all Coast 

 Survey operations on the Pacific Coast of the United States. 



The reports of the U. S. Coast Survey show that he never failed 

 to grasp opportunities for making observations which promised to be 

 useful in any branch of astronomy, pure or applied. He observed the 

 total eclipse of the Sun of August, 1869, on the Chilkaht River, Alaska, 

 and the total eclipse of January, 1880, on the summit of Santa Lucia 

 Mountain in central California. He observed the transit of Venus, in 

 behalf of the U. S. Government Commission, in Japan in 1874 and in 

 New Mexico in 1882. He observed the transit of Mercury in the 

 Sacramento Valley in 1881. He observed meteors and star occulta- 

 tions on many occasions. He was interested in testing atmospheric 

 conditions as affecting astronomical observations. x\s a labor of love 

 he made thousands of observations of latitude-pairs of stars, as a 

 contribution to the subject of terrestrial latitude variation. 



Davidson's influence with James Lick, when Mr. Lick was formulat- 

 ing plans for erecting the most powerful telescope in existence, was 

 potent, and perhaps even vital to a practical solution of Mr. Lick's 

 problem. 



Professor Davidson was president of the California Academy of 

 Sciences for sixteen years, and president of the Pacific Geographical 

 Society for thirty years. He was an authority on the voyages of the 

 early explorers of the Pacific Coast, and on the early history of the 

 Coast. At various times and during periods of different lengths he 

 served on the Irrigation Commission of California, on the Advisory 

 Harbor Improvement Commission for San Francisco, on the Missis- 

 sippi River Commission, on the United States Assay Commission, 

 and as a Regent of the University of California. During the last 

 years of his life he was Professor of Geography in the University of 

 California. His life was devoted with untiring energy and complete 

 unselfishness to the interests of science on the Pacific Coast. It is no 

 exaggeration to say that during sixty years Professor Davidson's 

 name was more familiar to the scientifically-inclined inhabitants of 

 the Pacific Coast region than that of any other resident. 



W. W. Campbell. 



