882 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1904. 



Much of it was, however, unquestionably fully justified. 



His disposition to down an opponent through sheer weight of per- 

 sonal authority rather than by proof or argument sometimes resulted 

 iiuplacing him in laughable and awkward positions before his audience, 

 but from which he always emerged unembarrassed. Thus it is told 

 of him that at the Buffalo meeting of the American Association for 

 the Advancement of Science a member rose to question a statement 

 of his to the effect that three species of Spirifer characterized three 

 zones of the Chemung formation, the gentleman affirming that, so far 

 from this being the case, the three species could often be found upon 

 one slab, indicating that they belong to the same zone. This Hall 

 emphatically denied, and declared that if such a slab could be shown 

 him, i. e., with the three species associated, he, Hall, would eat it. 

 The next day such a slab was actually produced, though it is not upon 

 record that Hall was called upon to redeem his promise. 



He was a man of tremendous physical energy, whom no amount of 

 opposition could down, and on the failure of the legislature in 1850 to 

 make the necessary appropriations for a paleontological survey of the 

 State he carried it on for a time at his own expense, even when this 

 involved the sacrifice of his private means. 



Stevenson would have us believe that the fundamental feature of 

 HalTs character was "child-like simplicity united to self-contidence 

 and indomitable energy." With reference to the last-mentioned qual- 

 ities no one will take exception. 



Knowing what he wanted he took a direct line, with little regard fur anybody or 

 anything which might be in the way to oppose. * * * He deceived his oppo- 

 nents by always telling the truth, something strange to politicians, hut in time they 

 came to understand him well, and strong men sought combat simply to measure 

 strength, as in gladiatorial contests of olden time. Almost invariably he was victo- 

 rious, but victory was often worse than defeat, for it converted into life-long enemies 

 men who before had been merely indifferent. * * He held his place for almost 



two-thirds of a century through no favor of man, but solely because he refused to be 

 displaced. 



For the benefit of those who, after the science of paleontology was 

 well upon its feet, were disposed to claim it as a branch of biology, it 

 may be well to remark that with Hall the problems of geology were 

 always uppermost. 



His quartos on the New York paleontology are bis monument, and the casual 

 observer is liable to see in him a biologist rather than a geologist, but until his later 

 years he was a geologist. His studies were from the standpoint of one seeking to 

 determine relations between the physical and biological conditions in order to solve 

 problems of correlation. The great problems of geology, not those of biology, were 

 uppermost in his mind until less than twenty years ago. His presidential address to 

 the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1857 (see p. 499), was so 

 far in advance of the time as to be thought not merely absurd, but mystical, yet to-day 

 it is recognized as one of the most important contributions to one of the most difficult 

 problems in physical geology. Even in his later years, when biological problems 



