Eminent Living Geologists — Br. C. D. Walcott. 3 



study of the great geological section extending from the high plateaus 

 of southern Utah to the bottom of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. 

 In 1882 he collaborated with Mr. Arnold Hague in the survey of the 

 Eureka mining district in Nevada and the working out of the great 

 Palaeozoic section of central Nevada. The charge of the Palaeozoic 

 palaeontology of the Survey was now assigned to him, and though 

 this entailed considerable routine work in the identification of fossils 

 brought from many fields by the various geologists, he was enabled 

 to pursue with vigour his cherished plans for the investigation of 

 the older faunas. He examined the Cambrian formations of the 

 Appalachian belt all the way from Alabama to Quebec, and carried 

 his researches on a more easterly line through New England and 

 New Brunswick to Newfoundland. He also began a series of 

 Western studies which eventually included the most important 

 known bodies of Cambrian and pre-Cambrian rocks in Texas, Arizona, 

 California, Idaho, Nevada, Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota. 

 En 1888 he was advanced to be palaeontologist in charge of 

 invertebrate palaeontology in the Geological Survey; in 1891, to 

 be chief palaeontologist; and in 1893, to be geologist in charge of 

 geology and palaeontology, in which capacity he had the general 

 direction of that branch of the work of the Survey. In July, 1894, 

 Major J W. Powell retired from the office of director of the Survey, 

 and Mr. Walcott was selected by President Cleveland to succeed 

 him. This position he held until his resignation in 1907 to become 

 Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, of which he had previously 

 been assistant secretary in charge of the United States National 

 Museum. During those years he reorganized and developed the 

 Geological Survey on scientific and business principles. The 

 confidence reposed in him by the Congress is attested by the fact that 

 the initial appropriation of $484,640 was increased, during his 

 administration to several times that amount ($1,700,000). 



Between 1902 and 1907 Dr. Walcott directed the organization 

 and conduct of the United States Reclamation Service. He fostered 

 interest in the forestry movement, and in 1898 he secured the 

 passage as an amendment to an appropriation for the Geological 

 Survey of the first comprehensive law organizing the forest reserves 

 of the United States. 



As the initiator and secretary of the Carnegie Institution of 

 Washington, and its direct administrative officer from 1902 to 1905, 

 and as a member of its Executive Committee from 1902 to the present 

 time (now chairman), he has assisted largely in the successful 

 organization and development of the administrative and research 

 work of that Institution. 



Since 1907, when he was chosen by the Board of Regents as 

 Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Dr. Walcott has directed 

 research investigations in various parts of the world, and has 

 personally studied large areas in the llocky Mountains of British 

 Columbia and Alberta, Canada. The Smithsonian foundation was 

 established by Act of Congress in 1846, under the terms of the will 

 of James Smithson, an Englishman, who in 1826 bequeathed his 

 fortune to the United States of America "to found, at Washington, 



