428 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIV. No. 614. 



grappling with the difficulties with which 

 nature guards the secrets of her fastnesses. 



During his connection with the Univer- 

 sity of Michigan, he carried on exten- 

 sive explorations for the United States 

 Geological Survey in many of the west- 

 ern states, and for the past five years of 

 his work for the survey has given especial 

 attention to the question of the water sup- 

 ply and irrigation of those vast areas, 

 which need only water to be converted into 

 fruitful fields. In these expeditions he ex- 

 plored northwestern Nevada, the Mono 

 Valley of California, central "Washington, 

 the Cascade Mountains of northern Wash- 

 ington, southern Idaho, the south and 

 southeastern- part of Oregon, central Ore- 

 gon, Nez Perces County of Idaho, and the 

 Snake Eiver Valley of Idaho. 



Eighteen of the annual reports of the 

 United States Geological Survey contain 

 papers by him, these papers covering more 

 than fifteen hundred pages, and being 

 richly illustrated by photographs, maps 

 and diagrams, picturing the topography of 

 the country through which he traveled. 

 The 'Geologic History of Lake Lahontan, 

 a Quaternary Lake of Northwestern 

 Nevada,' is a monograph of nearly three 

 hundred- pages, and his paper ' The Newark 

 System' is a still more extensive mono- 

 graph. 



Glaciers had for him, as for every true 

 mountain climber, a fascination. In 1883 

 he wrote a fifty-page paper on the 'Exist- 

 ing Glaciers of the United States.' It 

 was in 1890 and 1891 that he made two 

 expeditions to Mount St. Elias, where he 

 nearly lost his life, first attempting to land 

 on the wild coast of Alaska, and, later, on 

 the mountain itself. 



Professor Russell, in writing of the first 

 expedition, says: 'The country visited 

 proved of such great interest both to geol- 

 ogists and geographers that it was decided 



to review the study of the various prob- 

 lems it offered during the following year." 

 The way in which he carried through the 

 second expedition is perhaps as good evi- 

 dence as we have of the character of the 

 man. The decision to send the expedition 

 was not reached until May 17. That night 

 Russell left "Washington for Seattle. On 

 arriving there he found that the revenue 

 cutter Bear would leave for Alaska May 

 23. This gave him a week, but in that 

 time he engaged his men and secured all 

 the instruments, camp equipment and pro- 

 visions needed for a prolonged stay in the 

 wilds. He went without any trained as- 

 sistants, only taking six camp hands, three 

 of whom fortunately had been with him 

 the year before. As the land was ap- 

 proached. Mount St. Elias could be seen 

 one hundred and fifty miles away. The 

 sea was calm, but the huge rollers of the 

 Pacific were breaking on that rugged coast, 

 which made landing exceedingly danger- 

 ous. In the successive attempts to land 

 the outfit, the boats were repeatedly cap- 

 sized, and a lieutenant, four sailors and 

 one of the men of the expedition were lost. 

 A delay necessarily resulted, and this delay 

 prevented Professor Russell from reaching 

 the top of the mountain. There is only 

 a short interval when the mountain is free 

 from snow-storms, and he was caught in 

 the first storm of the year. Most of us know 

 the story of how, when within striking dis- 

 tance of the top, he found that his men had 

 failed to bring certain instruments and 

 how he sent them back to the base camp, 

 remaining alone on the glacier. Then came 

 the snow. He saved himself by digging a 

 hut in the side of a drift and there he stayed 

 for three days, until the storm cleared. 

 He has said that he could have reached the 

 top of the mountain, but that he knew if 

 he did he would never return; so he was 

 forced to retrace his steps. The knowledge 



