WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 95 



dimmed, he maintained the same keen interest in scientific questions 

 and current affairs that had marked his career at its height. Those 

 of his friends who visited him during the last few weeks of his life 

 heard not a single complaint nor an expression of regret, but found 

 themselves chatting easily with an old and honored friend who gave 

 no indication of the fact that he knew definitely that his career was 

 soon to be stayed by the hand of Death. Thus, rising superior to the 

 weakened pain-racked body, he met with philosophic calm and 

 sublime courage the final inevitable test. It is not given to man to 

 do more than this. 



\ 

 From Doctor George P. Merrill, of the United States National 



Museum : 



Though I can not claim to have been intimate with Doctor McGee, 

 my acquaintance covered practically the entire period of his connec- 

 tion with the government bureaus. Our relations were always 

 friendly, if not confidential. I remember him as uniformly courteous, 

 always ready and willing to give consideration to any worthy question 

 brought forward, open to suggestions, frank in criticism. He had an 

 unusual capacity for adapting himself to a wide range of work and 

 conditions. This is illustrated to some extent by his published 

 bibliography, but which gives little clue to his capacity for organi- 

 zation and his abilities as an editor, both of which found ample scope 

 during the early years of the Geological Society of America. 



He had also a remarkable faculty for absorbing and utilizing in- 

 formation on subjects not directly connected with his own special line 

 of work. To illustrate this I need only call attention to his article 

 on " Fifty Years of American Science," published in the Atlantic 

 Monthly for September, 1898, or his Vice-Presidential address before 

 Section H of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 for the year previous. 



Were I to advance a criticism it would be to the effect that his plans 

 were often detailed and comprehensive beyond a possibility of ac- 

 complishment. This trait was brought forcibly to my attention in 

 connection with a fragmentary manuscript relating to a history of 

 American state geological and natural history surveys to which I 



