ORVILLE A. DERBY 211 



position less than two years, for through a change of ministry the 

 survey was abolished in 1877, and Hartt died in Rio that same 

 year. Shortly after the suspension of the survey, however, Derby 

 was given a position in the National Museum at Rio as curator in 

 charge of geology, a position which enabled him to continue his 

 studies on the geology of Brazil, and, to a certain extent, to pre- 

 serve the results of the work of the extinct survey. He remained 

 in the museum until 1886 when he was made state geologist of the 

 Brazilian state of Sao Paulo. 



The establishment of the Sao Paulo survey was a step of great 

 importance to geological science in Brazil, for Derby's knowledge 

 of and interest in the geology of the country as a whole enabled 

 him to grasp more firmly the geological problems of that particular 

 state, and at the same time he became and remained, up to the 

 time of his death, the leading authority on the geology of Brazil. 

 He was state geologist of Sao Paulo until 1904, when he resigned. 



In 1907 a new federal geological service was provided for, and 

 Derby was made its chief, a position he held during the rest of his 

 life. 



The first edition of Branner's Geologia Elementar, a work pre- 

 pared especially for Brazilian students of geology, was thus dedi- 

 cated: "To Orville A. Derby, who has devoted his life to the study 

 of the geology of Brazil, and has done more than anyone else to 

 solve its many problems, this work is affectionately dedicated." 

 This is a brief and mild statement of Derby's great services to 

 Brazil and to the science of geology, without mentioning his many 

 other services to science and to that country. 



First and last Derby was a paleontologist. He had no fond- 

 ness for administrative work; he was but little interested in struc- 

 tural geology or in its methods; he was forced by circumstances 

 into some acquaintance with microscopic petrography; but his 

 interest in paleontology was genuine, deep, and all-comprehensive. 

 From all the cares of office and the worries of life he found relief 

 and happiness in boxes of poorly preserved fossils that most 

 paleontologists would have put away as not worth while. 



It was chiefly to this interest of his in paleontology that we 

 owe Dr. C. A. White's Contributions to the Paleontology of Brazil, 



