JOHN WESLEY POWELL. JI 



ord. It is so easy, he would say, for a worthy claimant to lack 

 proofs destroyed by war and time. And his sympathetic nature, 

 added to his experience, made him believe that more worthy pen- 

 sion claims were rejected than unworthy ones allowed. 



With passing years he grew stouter and heavier. Beside the 

 natural tendency perhaps this was hastened or increased by lack 

 of exercise enforced by the wounded arm, which was tender and 

 frequently painful for so many years. Often in later years prior to 

 the third and last surgical operation, from which complete relief 

 was had, the left hand would almost unconsciously or mechanically 

 take hold of and support the tender stump. Especially was it so 

 if walking or doing anything that gave even a slight jar to the 

 body. So he walked little and rode much. Always fond of horses, 

 he did much riding in buggy and saddle up to the last few years. 

 When engaged in his western surveys, he was loath to let the driver 

 drive, preferring himself to mount the box and with his one hand 

 manage the four-horse team over the rough and trackless regions 

 where his work lay. An early riser, he often had his party on the 

 road at or before daylight, and his early rising habit continued to 

 the end. 



In appearance, as we saw him from day to day in the high 

 noon and afternoon of his busy life, he was of medium height, 

 rather stout, deliberate in speech and action, with long full brown 

 beard, prominent eyebrows, deep-set half-closed eyes that had a 

 merry twinkle in them, a noble forehead and loose unkempt hair 

 brushed back and never parted ; in manner dignified, affable, cour- 

 teous ; in dress careless but not slovenly. In his soft felt hat, he 

 seemed too much absorbed in his work and philosophy to think of 

 his dress. A constant smoker, he seemed never conscious of the 

 cigar's presence but only of its absence. 



It was in the full activity of his middle life that I first met him, 

 when the newly created United States Geological Survey was young 

 and when organisation, methods, plans, policy, and administration 

 were live and burning questions. Into these he plunged with a 

 zeal and an energy that were infectious and which inspired in his 

 associates perfect confidence and a loyal and devoted following. 

 In those days, and particularly during the Congressional investiga- 

 tion of the Hydrographic Office, Weather Bureau, Coast Survey, 

 and Geological Survey in 1885-1886, large drafts were made on 

 the time, strength, and energies of his I will not say subordinates, 

 though such they were, but rather upon his associates and com- 

 panions, for such he always made them. But no amount of work 



