LIFE OF JAMES DWIGHT DANA 



geological excursion, Professor Dana came to the ticket- 

 window just as I was getting my ticket and bought two 

 tickets, and then, coming up to where Devonian and I were 

 standing, quietly slipped a ticket into the Armenian's 

 hand. The reason for this charity was evident. The 

 Armenian could not afford the expense of these geological 

 trips, some of which were quite extensive, and Professor 

 Dana was simply helping him to some knowledge and 

 experience which might be useful to him as a missionary 

 teacher. This was a little thing and might mean little or 

 much, according to the spirit in which it was done. It 

 was assuredly alms of the kind not intended to be seen of 

 men. 



" Although he had been teaching geology for many 

 years and had been taking students over the New Haven 

 region so long that one would have thought his enthu- 

 siasm would have begun to flag, yet, on the excursions in 

 the fall of 1 88 1, he was as energetic and enthusiastic as a 

 boy. I remember our first excursion very well. I think 

 there must have been over fifty students who started on 

 this excursion ; most of them were armed with hammers, 

 which they used with great vigor on the boulders which 

 strew the New Haven plain. Although he had to repeat 

 the same thing many times when students would come to 

 him with a piece of granite, or trap, or slate, or sandstone, 

 he was always patient and explained again and again, 

 without the least sign of weariness or lack of interest. 

 At times our course led us over a strip of meadow where 

 there were no exposures; then, or sometimes between 

 places of special interest, the Professor would break into 

 a sharp trot, which the best sprinters present did not care 

 to outdo for very long. By the time we had visited the 

 trap-dikes of Mill Rock and Whitney Park there were less 

 than a dozen left of the fifty, and over, who had so bravely 

 started. . . . 



" In July, 1882, I had the rare pleasure of accompany- 

 ing Professor Dana on a trip occupying several days, into 

 northwestern Connecticut and southwestern Massachu- 

 setts. We spent the Fourth of July in Canaan, Connecti- 

 cut, a beautiful region of the country, 



' Where every prospect pleases, 

 And only man is vile.' 



