WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 117 



period of uplift preceding the subsidence initiating the Lower Cre- 

 taceous to Recent time. He recognized that the aim of historical 

 geology is to present a consecutive coordinate account of the history 

 of the earth, and that geologic progress demanded an attempt to pre- 

 sent such an account. McGee made it, and he did well, especially 

 well .when the meagerness of information twenty years or more ago 

 is borne in mind. 



No estimate of McGee's contributions to Coastal Plain geology 

 would be adequate without considering his personality. It was my 

 good fortune to make his acquaintance shortly after I joined the staff 

 of the United States Geological Survey in 1894; our relations soon 

 became friendly and so continued until his death. As I was his suc- 

 cessor in having under my direction the geologic studies in the terri- 

 tory over which he previously had supervision, it was natural that I 

 should discuss with him problems of Coastal Plain geology. Two 

 characteristics of McGee were impressive. One was an utter absence 

 of personal bias in considering his own previous work. He neither 

 belittled nor defended it. He once said to me "Each succeeding 

 generation has its own problems," intimating that he had done his 

 work and had left the continuance of the investigations to those who 

 were following him. This was not due to apathy but to the clear 

 recognition of the principles underlying scientific advance, for he was 

 interested in the progress of the researches, and discussed problems in 

 the most open-minded way. The other characteristic was his ever- 

 ready helpfulness. An instance of both of the characteristics com- 

 bined in one act may be given: In 1910, E. W. Berry found Wilcox 

 Eocene fossil plants at Oxford, Mississippi, in material cited as typi- 

 cal of the "Orange Sand" by Hilgard, and considered typical Lafay- 

 ette by McGee. As in the literature there was vagueness regarding 

 the type locality of the formation, I reported the results of Berry's 

 investigations to McGee, and requested a statement from him. A 

 copy of his reply, written with the intention that it be published, 

 may be found in the Journal of Geology, vol. 19, p. 251. The quality 

 of this act is evident. 



The geologic work on the Coastal Plain antecedent to McGee was 

 detached and areally limited, although it had engaged the attention 

 of a number of geologists of a high order of ability. He was the first 



