JOHN WESLEY POWELL. 67 



equally perceptible in the proceedings of the Anthropological So- 

 ciety. Rarely was a paper presented in whose discussion he did 

 not participate; and it was his function, as presiding officer, to 

 point out the bearing of the specific contribution on the larger 

 philosophy of the subject to assign it its place in the scientific 

 scheme. To him is largely due the tone of the society the pre- 

 vailing dignity and earnestness of its proceedings, and the rareness 

 of those laborious records of trivial observations whose discussion 

 has been caricatured in the proceedings of the Pickwick Club. 

 The work of the Society and that of the Bureau are closely related, 

 for the Society is the arena for the discussion of the problems de- 

 veloped in the work of the Bureau; but the Society includes also 

 a large independent membership and discusses a broader range of 

 subjects. 



When the Geological Survey was placed in charge of Major 

 Powell, its scientific work was divided chiefly on a geographic 

 basis. A number of geographic districts had been constituted, and 

 each was in charge of a geologist-in-chief who directed all of the 

 work within the district, including general and economic geology, 

 topography, chemistry, etc. Powell made no abrupt change, but 

 he gradually substituted for this a radically different organisation, 

 one in which a geologist versed in a special branch of the subject 

 superintended work only in that department, in which all geographic 

 work was under a single chief of division, in which paleontology 

 had a division by itself, with subdivisions delimited by biotic and 

 geologic lines, in which chemistry, lithology, glacial geology and 

 various other special topics were assigned to corps or individuals, 

 each of whom had the territory of the United States as his field. 

 Geographic lines were still used for the subdivision of the two 

 principal bodies of work, the geography and the general or strati- 

 graphic geology; but in all other respects the kind of work to be 

 done was the basis of organisation. 



The Geological Survey is a large government bureau. In most 

 of the bureaus at Washington it is the function of the chiefs to de- 

 cide questions that arise. The business they transact originates 

 elsewhere, and their action is magisterial or judicial. As chief of 

 the Geological Survey Powell too performed these functions, but 

 he likewise took the initiative to an exceptional extent. Details 

 were arranged by his chiefs of divisions, but the general plans were 

 his, and he was personally conversant with the nature and tenden- 

 cies of all the work of research. Partly by explicit instructions, 



