REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1910. Ul 
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 was 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 simifar 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 Survey 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 
staff of the National Museum as curator of invertebrate fossils. 
