WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 111 



paid little attention to the form of their manuscript, and the burden 

 of rendering it clear to the printer was left to the editor, who, in too 

 many cases, was compelled also to rearrange the material. Not in- 

 frequently, the manuscript was in such shape as to add to the cost 

 of composition. But McGee made sharp differentiation between the 

 several duties of the society, the editor, and the author; and his sys- 

 tem was adopted more or less closely by many other societies. After 

 a service of two years, when the precedents had become firmly estab- 

 lished, he retired from the work, with high reputation as a dictator 

 to whom the geologists were greatly indebted. 



McGee was, in complete sense of the term, a self-made man. It is 

 very certain that he regarded his success in this work with some 

 degree of complacency, which occasionally aroused not wholly good- 

 natured criticism. He had acquired a vast stock of well-digested 

 knowledge and had added greatly to the world's stock of new knowl- 

 edge; comparing himself, in these respects, with many others who had 

 enjoyed the advantages of scholastic training as well as those coming 

 from early associations, he found no reason for shamef acedness. There 

 is no doubt that the conditions led him to express himself in debate, at 

 times,with undue positiveness and without full regard to his opponents. 

 But no one of us need be in haste to cast stones at another. We are 

 all too ready to forget that a generous Providence has endowed us 

 with a liberal supply of defects and are too ready to denounce the 

 faults which we see in others, but which, thank God, do not exist in us. 

 Yet McGee never seemed to entertain ill-will against any on his own 

 account; I never heard him speak disparagingly of other geologists, 

 though he did not hesitate to discuss their work. He always seemed 

 to feel that the world is large enough for all. 



Reference has been made to McGee's memory and to his pride as a 

 self-made man. He recognized that he was a strong man, and that 

 he was not alone in that recognition. He was so strong that he saw 

 no discredit in acknowledging indebtedness to those who had helped 

 him up the ladder when he was struggling at the foot. He was not 

 ashamed to be grateful and was ready to prove gratitude by self- 

 denial. This characteristic was proved on one occasion, to which 

 reference may be made here as both principals are dead. Prof. James 

 Hall, who, for a period of two generations, was state geologist of 



