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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIV. No. 1138 



should say, the opening it afforded for his re- 

 searches on the late paleozoic rocks of that 

 state, problems that he followed not only while 

 there, but to which he returned in later years. 

 His work on the Carboniferous and Permian 

 of Kansas and eastern Nebraska, some of it 

 undertaken under the auspices of the Kansas 

 University Geological Survey, was of unques- 

 tionably high value, much of it of funda- 

 mental importance. But it was his success 

 as a teacher which gave him in 1894 a call to 

 Union University at Schenectady, 1ST. Y., and 

 as it was a call which brought him back home 

 and to the rocks of New Tork out of which 

 he grew, he accepted it with alacrity. Union 

 was then venturing on the experiment of 

 establishing a separate department of geology, 

 and her experiment was successful enough, as 

 some admirable geologists and paleontologists 

 and many other graduates of Union under 

 Prosser's regime, stand to-day to testify. It 

 was while at Schenectady that Professor 

 Prosser entered upon his alliance with the 

 New York Geological Survey and in this asso- 

 ciation accomplished a large amount of useful 

 analytical work on its stratigraphical prob- 

 lems. His papers published during this pe- 

 riod of his life were notable, and cover por- 

 tions of eastern and central New York; the 

 Mohawk Valley and the vicinity of Schenec- 

 tady, the Helderberg Mountains, the Unadilla, 

 the Oneonta, the Catskill and other regions — 

 all characterized by his peculiarly exact and 

 detailed procedure. 



In his last year at Schenectady he was made 

 chief of the Appalachian division of the Mary- 

 land geological survey and thereafter for sev- 

 eral years his summers were spent in field work 

 on the paleozoic rocks of Maryland, Pennsyl- 

 vania and West Virginia. 



In 1899 Professor Edward Orton, Sr., the 

 distinguished state geologist of Ohio, former 

 president of the State University, educated in 

 Albany and in his later years allied with the 

 official work of New York, perceiving the ad- 

 vance of the years, fastened on Prosser as the 

 man to succeed him in the professorship of 

 geology in the State University of Ohio at 

 Columbus, and thither Dr. Prosser went as 



associate professor of historical geology. In 

 1901 he was made head of the department. 

 There he remained till his death — seventeen 

 years. Professor Orton died not long after 

 Prosser's arrival in Columbus and I think 

 the initiate was in some ways embarrassed by 

 the sudden loss of the man who otherwise 

 would have been his wise guide at the begin- 

 ning of his new undertaking. Por some time 

 after settling in Columbus Dr. Prosser main- 

 tained his official and intimate relations with 

 New York, but gradually the problems nearer 

 to him invited his attention and a natural 

 loyalty to the state of his adoption and his 

 official connection with its survey, together 

 with the requirements of his college work, ab- 

 sorbed his energies. In this period, however, 

 he was able to give much time and to do much 

 valuable work on the paleozoic rocks of Mary- 

 land under the auspices of the official survey 

 of that state, now published as a part of the 

 admirable series of reports of that organiza- 

 tion. Of his many contributions to the geol- 

 ogy of Ohio which have been published during 

 his career at Columbus, most of them themes 

 of stratigraphic determination and correlation, 

 all bear the impress of his cautious mode and 

 detailed analysis which make them practically 

 final for the fields they cover. 



It will be the work of another, I trust, to 

 set forth adequately the merit of Dr. Prosser's 

 many contributions to the science of geology, 

 and to record the strong uplifting influence 

 he had upon his pupils. There stand to his 

 credit men of great worth in this science in 

 American universities who were moulded by 

 his hand, but for each one of these trained 

 and proficient men there are scores who have 

 felt the inspiration of his lectures, have been 

 uplifted by his unstudied but unfailing cour- 

 tesy and thoughtfulness and have been in- 

 spired by their association with him in the 

 field. His courses at the Ohio State Univer- 

 sity had greatly grown in popularity and effi- 

 ciency as his students were made to perceive 

 the high cultural value of his science, wholly 

 apart from any of its commercial phases. 



But while I am not able fully to speak on 

 this phase of his work except as I have learned 



