LIFE OF JAMES DWIGHT DANA 



The official announcement came to him from David 

 Forbes, and it was accompanied by a private letter from 

 Henry Woodward, of the British Museum, giving an in- 

 side view of the circumstances which preceded its be- 

 stowal. He mentions that in the three years previous, 

 Ramsay, H. E. Sorby, and Carl F. Naumann had been 

 the recipients of this honor. 



The Royal Society of New South Wales awarded him 

 the Clarke Memorial Medal in 1882. 



A lofty peak in the Sierra Nevada of the Pacific slope 

 bears the name Mount Dana. 



One of the latest and most gratifying recognitions came 

 to Professor Dana from Boston when he was almost eighty 

 years old. In April, 1892, a telegram brought him the 

 announcement that the Boston Society of Natural History 

 would bestow upon him the Walker Prize of one thou- 

 sand dollars for distinguished services in natural history. 

 This dispatch was followed by a letter from the Presi- 

 dent, Dr. George L. Goodale, of Harvard, in which he 

 congratulated the recipient that his scientific activity, 

 covering a period of more than half a century, was still 

 fruitful in valuable results. "At a time of life," he con- 

 tinues, " when many students would seek release from 

 labor, you are seeking for new problems to investigate, 

 and you maintain to-day an untiring interest in the first 

 subjects which commanded your attention." 



Dana replied : 



" After a long life of work, it is a great satisfaction to 

 have words of approbation from those that are highly 

 esteemed for their scientific learning and judgment, and 

 especially to have such words made emphatic by so large 

 a gift. The allusion to my labor in natural history leads 

 my mind back to expedition days, and recalls the fact 

 that our scientific corps in the Wilkes Exploring Expedi- 

 tion was half Bostonian, and now, when the fiftieth anni- 

 versary of the return of the expedition (June loth), after 

 a four years' cruise, is but a few weeks off, Boston Science 



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