Joseph Le Conte 



L 1 



it}' and comprehensiveness — his "Ele- 

 ments of Geology," indeed, is beyond 

 comparison in any language as an intro- 

 duction to the science of the earth. 



Professor I^e Conte was geographer 

 and geologist, and much more besides ; 

 his original researches in optics, in sev- 

 eral lines of human physiology, and in 

 various other subjects, raised him to 

 tlie rank of authority ; and he had the 

 faculty withal of comprehending and 

 assimilating the results of other men's 

 work in such wise that he was at home 

 in every field of science. In his prime 

 when the doctrine of biotic evolution 

 was first formulated, he contributed to its 

 diffusion materially and with a special 

 effectiveness by reason of his own orig- 

 inal work, as well as his charm of per- 

 sonality and manifest sincerity of pur- 

 pose ; and one of his most noteworthy 

 books is " Evolution in its Relation to 

 Religious Thought" (1887). He was 

 among the pioneers also in the accept- 

 ance and promulgation of the doctrine of 

 conservation, one of the first to extend 

 the principle to the domain of vitality, 

 and the first to extend it into the realm 

 of mentality ; and he was one of the few 

 thinkers of the last decade to consider 



favorably that form of the doctrine of 

 conservation in which the persistence is 

 conceived to inliere in the particle rather 

 than primarily in the cosmos as a whole. 

 In fullest sense he was a savant ; and 

 every subject touched by his versatile 

 mind was enlivened and made clearer 

 and more attractive b}' the touch. At 

 the same time his heart reached out to 

 every matter of human interest ; he 

 abounded in the milk of human kind- 

 ness ; his modesty and charity and 

 never-failing courtesy impressed and 

 captivated ; in every respect he was one 

 of the most lovable as well as the most 

 admirable of men. 



Professor L,e Conte died as he lived, 

 a student of nature. With a small party 

 he returned to the Yosemite Valley early 

 in July, for the purpose of reviewing 

 recent suggestions as to the origin of the 

 magnificent gorge ; but the diminished 

 air-pressure of the mountains led to a 

 cardiac derangement, which proved fatal 

 within a few hours. He died on July 6, 

 at the ripe age of 78, in a little camp 

 shadowed by the towering granite walls 

 of the cafion he had lived to make 

 famous. 



W J M. 



The German Sottth Polar Expedition 



will take a full equipment of aerial ap- 

 paratus to make sj^stematic kite ascen- 

 sions from aboard ship during the voy- 

 age southward and also during the 

 months in the Antarctic regions. The 

 Monthly Weather Revieiv states that the 

 kites ' ' are of three sizes : the large 

 Marvin, like those used b}' the Weather 

 Bureau, of 6^3 square meters surface ; 

 Hargrave kites, of 4 and 2^. square 

 meters surface, and light Eddy kites, of 

 2 ^ square meters, which are very advan- 

 tageously used in lifting and sustaining 

 :the larger kites with instruments in light 



winds." Probably no expedition has 

 ever made such complete preparation for 

 the systematic exploration of the upper 

 air conditions in South Polar regions. 



The Carnegfie Mtfse«m^ Pittsburg, Pa., 

 has several parties working in the field. 

 Prof. J. B. Hatcher is engaged in taking 

 up fossils at Cafion City, Col.; Messrs. 

 W. E. C. Todd, D. A. Atkinson, and 

 George Mellor are in the Maritime Prov- 

 inces and in Newfoundland making nat- 

 ural history collections for the museum, 

 and other scientists are at work in West- 

 ern Nebraska and Wyoming. 



