THE APPROACHING END 



thing even if he had been only to the kindergarten, where 

 they don't teach arithmetic. 



" My work the Geology makes progress as fast as is 

 well for me ; only three hours a day is a wasteful use of 

 the twelve hours of daylight, but it accomplishes some- 

 thing. It is a gratification to me that I can get willing 

 help from all the working geologists, young and old ; but 

 to keep up the correspondence and digest and introduce 

 all the new or changed facts that come in requires labor 

 that seems endless when restricted to so brief a part of 

 each day." 



The shadows lengthened, but they brought no gloom. 

 To the vision of Dana the night was bright and not dark, 

 the sky was set with stars and not covered with clouds. 

 As he looked backward and then looked forward the 

 words of Blanco White might have fallen from his lips : 



Who could have thought such darkness lay concealed 

 Within thy beams, O Sun ! or who could find, 



Whilst fly and leaf and insect stood revealed, 



That to such countless orbs thou mad'st us blind ! 



He rarely spoke of his advancing years, but once to his 

 old friend (Prof. J. P. Lesley of Philadelphia) he wrote 

 as follows: 



"NEW HAVEN, Nov. 5, 1893. 



" A recent note from Mr. Walcott tells me that you 

 have been very ill for some months. It grieves me much 

 to hear such news about you. For one who has hardly 

 known sickness it is the greater trial, and especially as 

 age lessens hope. Then, so much work remains un- 

 finished ! 



" But it is a source of great satisfaction to you that your 

 ever-active mind and body have made so much of the 

 passing years. I was yesterday reading your name con- 

 nected with some geological observations in the proofs of 

 my Geology, and a later proof will have a notice of your 

 small topographical map of Pennsylvania, along with a 



265 



