6 Eminent Living Geologists — Dr. G. D. Walcott. 



1917, Dr. Walcott has divided his time between war work and the 

 administrative duties of the Smithsonian, but his leisure for research 

 has been curtailed. In spite of this, however, he lias prepared 

 a paper of unusual interest to palaeontologists, on " Appendages of 

 Trilobites" (now in press). This represents the fulfilment of the 

 promise to Professor Louis Agassiz, in 1873, that he would undertake 

 the investigation of the structure of the trilobite. 



To the War Service his contribution has been especially in 

 Aeronautics. He has given two sons to the Air Service, one of 

 whom, Benjamin Stuart Walcott, fell in combat over the German 

 lines December 12, 1917, and the second son, Sidney, is on active 

 service. His daughter, Helen, served for nearly a year as nurse in 

 a French military hospital, and is now in Italy. The present war 

 activities have made heavy claims upon Dr. Walcott's time and 

 strength, but in spite of this he has again this summer (1918) 

 succeeded in going on an expedition to the Canadian Rockies to 

 continue investigations in Alberta and British Columbia. 



Dr. Walcott has been favoured by fortune in many ways. A short 

 acquaintance with him suffices to reveal some of the causes which 

 have contributed to his success. His commanding figure is an 

 indication of exceptional energy and physical strength, and on 

 seeing him one is not surprised that at a ripe age he is able to carry 

 out his field-work under arduous conditions. His unwearied 

 industry also strikes one at once, for no opportunity for work is lost. 

 The powers of specialization and generalization are equally 

 developed with him ; while missing no feature in the minute 

 anatomy of some organism, he is able "to think in continents" and 

 has thus contributed largely to the elucidation of physiographical 

 problems connected with Palaeozoic times. He can turn at will 

 from one task to another. Tbe onerous duties of administrative 

 work in no wise check the enthusiasm with which he entei's into his 

 field labours. Fascinating as is the revelation of the rich faunas of 

 the Cambrian rocks of British Columbia, he also recognizes the 

 importance of the search for organic remains in the barren Algonkian 

 strata, and discovers Beltina and "a pre-Cambrian (Algonkian) 

 Algal flora from the Cordilleran area of Western America ". 



He has been fortunate in his home life. His first wife helped 

 him with ever-ready sympathy throughout the years when he was 

 rising to fame, and the present Mrs. Walcott is already known to the 

 geological world by- her writings. His sons and daughter have 

 laboured with him in the field, and especially in that wonderful and 

 prolific district of British Columbia, where so much of his recent 

 work has been done. 



Dr. Walcott has been also happy in his environment, especially of 

 later years, when he discovered the remarkable Cambrian faunas in 

 a region which he himself terms "a geologist's paradise". Amongst 

 the fairest scenes of nature he has toiled month by month and year 

 by year, and unearthed that marvellous series of faunas, one of 

 which is preserved in a rock recalling the Solenhofen Slate alone 

 among geological formations, so faithfully are the most delicate parts 

 of organisms preserved in it. Truly, the Burgess shale is a silent 



