WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 69 



little of the schooling of the times, but belonged to the class of so- 

 called self-educated men who have acquired the power of observation 

 and of making use of this knowledge without the help of teachers. 

 He grew up on a farm, studied, largely by himself, Latin, mathe- 

 matics, astronomy, and surveying, read law, practiced before the 

 local justice courts, and turned his attention to inventing and manu- 

 facturing agricultural implements, himself working at the forge and 

 at the bench. He became attracted to the geology of the surrounding 

 country, and on foot and by his unaided exertions, made one of the 

 most comprehensive geologic and topographic surveys (of Northeast- 

 ern Iowa) ever executed by an individual. This work attracted the 

 attention of Major John W. Powell, Director of the United States 

 Geological Survey, and McGee entered that bureau, being rapidly 

 advanced to the charge of important field practice. Among other 

 matters he compiled a geologic map of the United States, investigated 

 the Charleston earthquake, and later explored Tiburon Island in the 

 Gulf of California, the home of a savage tribe never before studied. 



Gradually his interests shifted from geology to the study of man- 

 kind, and he became the principal officer in the Bureau of American 

 Ethnology, and later Chief of the Department of Anthropology at 

 the St. Louis Exposition in 1904. Those who visited that Exposition 

 recall the unprecedented assemblage of the world's peoples. On the 

 close of this Exposition he became Director of the St. Louis Public Mu- 

 seum, and later a member of the United States Inland Waterways 

 Commission, and finally during the last years of his life, gave especial 

 attention to the subject of distribution of water on and beneath the 

 surface of the United States and to its industrial relations. His last 

 work is a very exhaustive study of the gradual lowering of the water 

 plane throughout the United States, as shown by the increasing 

 depth of wells, and the greater difficulty of securing an adequate 

 supply. 



In connection with the more important work above enumerated, 

 he was at all times prominent in scientific societies, and showed a 

 broad interest and sympathetic appreciation of all advances in human 

 knowledge. There are few scientific men of today who have had a 

 wider range and broader grasp of what was forme'rly called "Natural 

 History," and who could discuss these subjects with the breadth and 



