THE 



JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY 



NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 1894. 



GEORGE HUNTINGTON WILLIAMS. 



As our thoughts turn to George Huntington Williams and we 

 endeavor to express in some fitting form our appreciation of his 

 character as a man and of his ability as a teacher and investiga- 

 tor, we are embarrassed by the sense of our bereavement at his 

 death and of our bewilderment at those inscrutable laws that 

 sometimes deprive us of what we hold best. It would be impos- 

 sible for one who enjoyed the intimate friendship of such a 

 nature as George Williams possessed to approach his memory by 

 any other avenue than that of the affections, or to recite the 

 achievements of his brilliant mental activities without first recall- 

 ing those amiable traits that won him a place in the hearts of all 

 his associates. 



Gifted with the grace of personal attractiveness that com- 

 mended him to the favor of new friends and in no way belied 

 his disposition, he was also endowed with a ready adaptability 

 to the conditions and interests of those with whom he was 

 brought in contact, which was greatly enhanced by that happy 

 faculty of letting others share his own interests and of consider- 

 ing them both worthy of his confidence and capable of entering 

 into his pleasures and pursuits. These fundamental elements of 

 good fellowship distinguished him to a marked degree. But he 

 was more than genial ; the buoyancy of his spirit which kept 

 him company through periods of anxiety, making him hopeful 

 in adversity, carried him at other times to heights of enthusiasm. 

 The sanguine expectations and superlative qualities that sprang 

 Vol. II., No. 8. 759 



