Editorial 



JOSEPH BARRELL AND HIS WORK 



Joseph Barrell, a younger contemporary of Button, Gilbert, 

 Powell, and Van Hise, to name only the most eminent of those 

 upon whose work he built and whom he survived, is outlived by 

 a number of older geologists who recognized in him a rising leader 

 in research, and who feel his loss deeply, as that of a strong, judicious, 

 yet enthusiastic and sympathetic fellow-worker. 



Born in 1869, Barrell entered upon his career at a time when 

 the leading minds in geology were opening up bonanzas of fact and 

 theory. Already notable progress had been made in development 

 work. The early prospecting of the Great West which fol- 

 lowed the Civil War had been succeeded by the organization 

 of the United States Geological Survey and the consequent co- 

 ordination of studies carried on by able men under the stimulus of 

 companionship in a great opportunity. That companionship, 

 previously divided among small and often antagonistic groups, 

 became general and cordial in consequence of the founding of the 

 Geological Society of America in 1889. Discussion, concession, 

 and co-ordination replaced controversy and opened the way for 

 permanent constructive effort. Barrell fitted pre-eminently into 

 this environment, which emphasized truth and subordinated self. 



His scientific life thus coincided with the golden era of geology 

 in America. The brilliancy of its earlier years inspired his studies, 

 and during the last two decades he himself has contributed notably 

 to its advance. Estimating the relative contributions of en- 

 lightened nations to geology, he wrote as recently as March, 1919: 

 "For the past generation America, under which name should be 

 included both the United States and Canada, has held a position 

 of world-leadership in that science." The place which he himself 

 filled in that leadership his contemporaries cannot justly estimate. 

 But there is unanimous recognition of the fact that he was one of 

 the strongest of the younger leaders and a man of great promise. 



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