REVIEWS 567 



into active service in Wisconsin and Illinois as well. In 1854 appeared 

 Whitney's Metallic Wealth of the United States which was the most notable 

 work on the subject at the time. 



AVith his fortieth year comes the end of the first of the three periods into 

 which his life naturally divides itself. He has been by turn chemist, mining 

 expert, geological surveyor, but never the single head of a survey. With the 

 appointment as organizer and chief of the California Survey he is geologist 

 and his own master. 



The years in California were a period of ceaseless activity for Whitney, 

 for the difficulties confronting this young survey in a new state of the dimen- 

 sions of California were great. It was at this time that the youthful Baron 

 von Richthofen came to California to study volcanic phenomena and became 

 associated for a short time with the state survey. Out of this developed 

 the lifelong friendship between these two geologists. Richthofen's geo- 

 logical survey of China was Whitney's idea, and the Baron often used to 

 recall the New Year's Eve between 1867 and 1868 when he and Whitney 

 sat up all night and planned the China Survey. 



In 1874 the California Survey came to an end. Its termination appar- 

 ently was due to a variety of causes. The survey had been from the first 

 the project of a small group of enlightened persons, not the response to any 

 popular demand, and its function and work were but poorly appreciated. 

 In addition the survey earned the ill-will of many promoters, especially the 

 oil companies, by steadily minimizing, with perhaps unnecessary directness 

 and emphasis, the commercial possibilities of the California oil fields. 

 Such a combination of causes — the bad financial status of the state, a general 

 lack of insight and appreciation of scientific work by its influential people, 

 the opposition of unscrupulous promoters, and an unfortunate cavalier 

 tone and frequent want of tact displayed by the state geologist which stimu- 

 lated general antagonism from the mining interests and from the governor — 

 led to the final Avreck of the survey. 



The California Sui"vey was in a way the pathfinder for the U.S. Geologi- 

 cal Survey which was organized under King, Whitney's protege, in 1879. 

 The first director and some of his best-trained associates had received their 

 geological training and field experience under W^hitney. The methods of 

 field work and topographic surveying adopted in California were later 

 transplanted in the larger organization. The California Survey first shook 

 the tree of which the federal survey has gathered up most of the fruit. 



After such active pioneer field work and incessant travel for so many 

 years, Whitney settled down for the latter part of his life as Sturgis-Hooper 

 professor at Harvard. He did only a limited amount of teaching to small 



