570 Obituary — J. B. Hatcher. 



University, are enormous in extent and of the very highest scientific 

 vahie. Some of these collections were made by him at great 

 personal risk, the strata in which they were found being only 

 exposed for a few hours at low tide on the margin of the ocean. 

 Working rapidly he and his assistant took up what they could, and. 

 then hurried back over the wide beach to the cliffs, to presently 

 see the water from fifty to sixty feet deep rolling over the spot 

 where they had been excavating. The explorers literally snatched 

 their treasui'es from the hungry jaws of the ocean. In the fields 

 of recent zoology and botany he made extensive collections. His 

 geographical discoveries were of great importance. He added 

 immensely to our knowledge of the interior of Patagonia, traversing 

 vast territories upon which civilized man had never before planted 

 foot. He discovered mountains and lakes, and traced the course of 

 rivers which had never before been mapped. One of the great 

 mountain ranges, by the consent of both the Argentine and Chilian 

 Governments, bears his name. His decision that the crest of the 

 Patagonian watershed in parts of its course lies far east of the crest 

 of the southern Andean ranges, had an important bearing upon the 

 question of the boundary-line between the Argentine Republic and 

 Chile, and in the arbitration of this question, which has happily 

 been settled without recourse to arms, as was at one time threatened, 

 the discoveries of the young American explorer were brought into 

 prominence in diplomatic circles. 



On February 1st, 1900, J. B. Hatcher accepted the position 

 of Curator of Palaeontolog}'^ and Osteology in the Museum of the 

 •Carnegie Institute in Pittsbui-gh, where his brother-in-law, Mr. 0. A. 

 Peterson, immediately after his return from Patagonia, had been 

 employed as an assistant. Installed in his new post, with the 

 assurance of the unqualified and generous support of the founder of 

 the Institute in all wise efforts to make his work successful, he began 

 to lay out in connection with the Director of the Museum plans to 

 create one of the most important palfeontological collections in 

 America. For four summers in succession he carried on explorations 

 in the Western States. In 1903 he was associated for a portion of 

 the time with Mr. T. W, Stanton, of the United States Geological 

 Survey, in an effort to ascertain the relative position and geological 

 age of the Judith River beds, which had been for some time the 

 subject of earnest discussion among geologists. His views in relation 

 to this subject, which had been opposed by almost every other 

 geologist in America, were finally ascertained to be correct, and 

 it was a matter of great personal gratification to him, as the writer 

 of these lines knows, that the accuracy of his observations and 

 of his conclusions, which had been reached many years befoi'e, had 

 been verified. 



While Professor Hatcher wrote very little in relation to geology, 

 he nevertheless was I'egarded as being one of the very ablest of 

 American geologists, his great experience in the field and his close 

 attention to the subject having given him a practical knowledge 

 such as was possessed by few of his contemporaries. One of the 



