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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 411. 



the line of battle, he lost his arm. He 

 was obliged to retire, but in a few weeks 

 he returned to the front at Vicksburg. 

 Ouee in the fray, he was there to the end. 

 When he came to Washington to organize 

 scientific work he had the benefit of the 

 advice and experience of Professor Baird; 

 but the organization of scientific work on 

 a broad national basis remained to be ac- 

 complished. Through his energy and 

 power of organization he led in the consoli- 

 dation of the King, Hayden and Powell 

 surveys, and thus helped to win a great 

 fight for scientific research. During his 

 explorations in the West, from 1869 to 

 1879, he became imbued with the idea that 

 the arid region must be saved through the 

 husbanding of its waters. He thought out 

 a great scheme of irrigation. In 1883, in 

 developing it, he got into a conflict, which 

 culminated in 1892. Through that con- 

 flict he showed the same spirit that domi- 

 nated him when a soldier. He felt that 

 he was right, and although defeated for 

 the time, he lived to see his views accepted 

 by Congress, in June, 1902. It has been 

 said that if he felt his position was right 

 he ■would follow it up even though by so 

 doing the whole organization should be 

 wiped out. 



"Year by year since 1894 I have told the 

 Major of what was going on in the Geolog- 

 ical Survey, of the welfare of individuals, 

 and of the welfare of the organization in 

 which he had such great interest. In all 

 our talks, from 1879 to our last meeting, 

 in May, I never heard him say a word of 

 what he had done or what he himself 

 thought of his work. 



"We mourn Major Powell as a man, as 

 a soldier, and as one of the great leaders in 

 the development of science and scientific 

 organization in America." 



Commissioner W. T. Harris then ad- 

 dressed the meeting as follows: 



When I came to Wasliington more than 

 twelve years ago Major PoweU was one of 

 the fii'st to extend me a friendly greeting. 

 We had not met before. Since that time 

 I have been brought into closer and closer 

 connection with him as the years have gone 

 by. I am glad of this opportunity to testify, 

 as others have clone before me, to his good- 

 ness. He was one of the most interesting 

 of men; one of the most beautiful char- 

 acters that I have ever known. It was. 

 easy for me, coming as a stranger to Wash- 

 ington, to discover traces of his work and 

 influence in many departments of the gov- 

 ernment and in many places in the Dis- 

 trict of Columbia, and I could not help 

 often asking myself, what is the source of 

 Major Powell's power and influence? I 

 knew of his brilliant and brave geological 

 explorations; knew of his high-minded de- 

 sire to find the scientific truth in regard to 

 nature and man. He looked around the 

 world and tried to explain higher civiliza- 

 tions by the same principles that he found 

 at work in simple forms among the savages; 

 in our western border lands. He had an 

 unbiased love of truth combined with such 

 personal amiability that he succeeded be- 

 yond most men in attaching to him his 

 associate workers and assistants, as it were 

 with links of steel ; he was true to them and 

 they were true to him. He was so broad- 

 minded as to extend his interests beyond 

 his provinces of geology and ethnology and 

 philologjr to writings of men in other de- 

 partments of science and history and 

 poetry, and even of philosophy. TNliatever 

 was human interested John W. Powell. 

 He took the problems of his contemporaries 

 seriously and tried to make out for himself 

 in his own way of thinking what there was 

 or is of value in these other departments. 

 During his long life he was gradually ma- 

 turing his views not only of his special 

 department, but his views of the world. 

 One of the first things I came upon in my 



