REGARD OF HIS PUPILS 



had, as I believe, more, your deeply interested atten- 

 tion. The relation of professor to student was to me 

 personally a new one ; for I had long been accustomed 

 to that only of gentleman with gentleman. It has been 

 my special pleasure that this last relation has been con- 

 tinued into my new trial of college life ; and I shall re- 

 member with peculiar satisfaction my pleasant intercourse 

 with the Class of 1856. To them all I tender my wishes 

 for their future success and happiness." 



He also received from an optional class, in 1877, a 

 letter of thanks, to which he made the following reply : 



" NEW HAVEN, June 28, 1877. 

 ' ' My dear Friends and Pupils of the Class of i8jj : 



" Your very kind words I have read and reread, re- 

 joicing that I have been able to give you both profit and 

 pleasure in connection with your geological studies, and 

 also that the first optional class in geology was composed 

 of just such young men as yourselves, so full of interest 

 in the science and so ready for outdoor as well as indoor 

 work. Your delight as we have walked and talked 

 whether while ranging through sandstone and granite 

 quarries, or climbing trap-mountains, or traversing gorges 

 with their lakes and ice-caves, or navigating an archipel- 

 ago of Archaean thimbles* has always been to me a de- 

 light, and has more than repaid me for what I have done. 

 And now I have double pay in your parting message. 

 It is my way, you know, to try to square off even ; and 

 although this is not wholly possible in the present case, 

 I do what I can toward it in sending you each a copy of 

 one of my recent memoirs, which will help to keep New 

 England geology in mind. 



With earnest wishes for your best welfare, 

 I remain your sincere friend, 



" JAMES D. DANA." 



Professor Walcott, the head of the United States Geo- 

 logical Survey, whose early home, like that of Dana, 

 Gray, and H. Williams, was in central New York, said: 

 *An allusion to Thimble Islands near New Haven, 



167 



