226 Memoir of Dr. Douglass Houghton. 
T'o these qualities of mind and heart, Dr. Houghton added a 
wonderful degree of resolution and energy, amounting almost to 
a fault. Having fixed his aim, he shrunk from no difficulties, 
and seldom failed to accomplish what he undertook. Cautious 
and analytical, prejudice was seldom allowed to close his mind 
against conviction. ‘The result was, he not only arrived at accu- 
rate conclusions, but far in advance of those who were either too 
biased or too indolent to investigate. 
Thus fitted by constitution and education for a province in 
the cause of knowledge, in the new and great West, and ardently 
attached to the fortunes of his adopted home, his active spirit 
launched him, like another Humboldt, upon its almost boundless 
wilderness, 2nd waters magnificent in their vastness and solitude, 
to explore these yet unread pages of the great book of nature. 
In the prosecution of these labors, to which with rare devotion 
he contributed his time, his purse and his health, he succeeded, 
even in his unfinished task, in building up an envied reputation 
among the scientific men of the age, and a distinguished name 
among those whom his state would delight to honor. 
rom these a mysterious providence called him away; the 
work of laborious years unfinished ; the full harvest of his honors 
unreaped. The circumstances attending his melancholy end are 
characteristic both of his nobleness and his intrepidity. He was 
engaged upon his new survey on Lake Superior. Accustomed to 
steer his own boat, fearless in his knowledge of the waves and 0 
the coast, and anxious to arrive at a particular destination, he 
paid too little heed to the omens that warned his Canadian voy- 
ageurs of the storm ; or rather, he trusted, as he had done a hun- 
dred times before under circumstances of greater apparent peril, 
to his own judgment and skill, to reach the port before the dan- 
ger should be imminent. When the storm commenced, his men 
proposed going ashore; Dr. Houghton encouraged them to pro- 
ceed, saying, “ We are not far from Eagle River, (their destina- 
tion, )—pull away my boys—we shall soon be there—pull hard.” 
When in the increasing violence of the gale, the frail boat en- 
countered the surf and was capsized, the geologist was raised 
from the water by his trusty voyageur, Peter, and told to cling 
to the keel. He answered, “ Never mind me, Peter, go ashore if 
you can—I will go ashore well enough.” Another sea struck 
the boat, throwing it completely over endwise, and probably oe- 
casioning instant strangulation. ‘This was on the night of t 
13th of October, 1845. 
Thus, at the early age of thirty-six years, was lost to his state 
and science one who, without eulogy, may be ranked among the 
most extraordinary men of our country ; whether we view him as 
the humble student of nature, attracting all hearts to science ; the 
y and skillful physician, periling his life to save that of 
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