EVDITORIAL 
GROVE KARL GILBERT 
The passing of Dr. Gilbert after almost seventy-five years of 
activity deprives geological science of one of its ablest and most 
honored representatives. It is permitted to few men to leave an 
equally enviable record. To an unusual degree his work was 
distinguished by keenness of observation, by depth of penetration, 
by soundness in induction, and by clarity of exposition. It is 
doubtful whether the products of any other geologist of our day 
will escape revision at the hands of future research to a degree 
equal to the writings of Grove Karl Gilbert. And yet this is not 
assignable to limitation of field, or to simplicity of phenomena, 
or to restriction in treatment. ‘The range of his inquiries was 
wide, his special subjects often embraced intricate phenomena, 
while his method was acutely analytical and his treatment tended 
always to bring into declared form the basal principles that under- 
lay the phenomena in hand. 
_In the literature of our science the laccolith will doubtless 
always be associated with the name of Gilbert. In its distinctness 
as a type, in its uniqueness of character, and in the definite place 
it was given at once by common consent, one may almost fancy 
a figurative resemblance between the laccolith and its discoverer 
and expositor. Gilbert’s monographs on the Henry Mountains 
and on Lake Bonneville will long stand as unexcelled models of 
monographic treatment. His contributions to physiographic 
evolution, particularly his analysis of the processes that end in 
base-leveling, link his name with that of Powell, and give to these 
two close friends a unique place as joint leaders in interpreting 
morphologic processes. Glacial and hydraulic phenomena were 
also fields in which Gilbert’s powers as an investigator and expositor 
were signally displayed. 
In accuracy of delineation, in clearness of statement, and in 
grace of diction Gilbert’s contributions are certain long to stand 
375 
