ANECDOTES OF HIS LIFE 



These lines from Bishop Heber's familiar hymn kept run- 

 ning in my mind like a refrain on the evening of that 

 Fourth of July ; for after riding over the charming country 

 on a bright forenoon and enjoying the delightful prospect 

 and experiencing the elevation of mind which came from 

 a near association with such a lover and interpreter of 

 nature as Professor Dana, we came back to the little hotel 

 and humanity, in the shape of a crowd of intoxicated 

 men, who were celebrating the day by indulging in a 

 drunken brawl. It was like coming down from the trans- 

 figured life of the mount to the disillusion of the plain 

 below. 



" The succeeding days were pleasanter and unspoiled 

 by the trail of the serpent. A journey among the lovely 

 Berkshire Hills of itself makes a place of rest and delight 

 in the memory, but with such a companion and in the 

 bright summer weather, the memory of Lenox and Lee 

 and Stockbridge and Great Barrington, and the country- 

 side round about, is a delight indeed. 



" On this trip Professor Dana was especially interested 

 in tracing the limits of certain limestone formations. I 

 remember one day when we were riding along near Lee 

 we came to an abrupt turn in the road, where what ap- 

 peared to be a granite rock was exposed by the roadside. 

 An exposure of limestone was to have been expected 

 here. Now, although I usually tried to do the work of 

 collecting material, in this case, before I could hand the 

 lines to Professor Dana, he had jumped from the buggy 

 and was looking at a piece of the rock through a pocket 

 lens. He was just saying, ' Yes, that is certainly gneiss,' 

 when a countryman came riding by in a wagon, and with 

 an unmistakable Yankee accent said, ' I reckon you call 

 that there rock limestone, don't you ? ' Professor Dana 

 looked up and said: ' No, it 's a kind of granite.' He 

 used the name granite and not the unfamiliar name gneiss, 

 which is a kind of granite rock. The countryman an- 

 swered, ' Well, it effervesces with acid, anyhow.' I have 

 a very vivid picture in my memory of the way Professor 

 Dana whipped out his pocket lens, which he had put away 

 while the conversation was going on, and glued his eye to 

 it. After a moment or two he looked up and laughed, at 

 the same time looking just a little ' beat,' and acknow- 

 ledged that the countryman was right. The man proved 



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