Apkil 21, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



603 



the sessions of the congress held in 1897 and 

 1903. 



Mr. Emmons became a fellow of the Geo- 

 logical Society of London in 18Y4 and joined 

 in 1877 the American Institute of Mining 

 Engineers, of which organization he was thrice 

 vice-president. While engaged in his early 

 work in Colorado, with headquarters at Den- 

 ver, he helped in 1882 to organize the Colorado 

 Scientific Society, was elected its first presi- 

 dent, and contributed extensively to its pro- 

 ceedings. He also took part in the founding 

 of the Geological Society of America, of which 

 he was chosen president in 1903. In 1892 he 

 was made a member of the National Academy 

 of Sciences and he filled the office of treasurer 

 of that body from 1902 to the time of his 

 death. He was a charter member of the 

 Mining and Metallurgical Society of America 

 and held active or honorary membership in 

 many other scientific societies in this country 

 and abroad. In 1909 both Harvard and Co- 

 lumbia universities conferred upon him the 

 honorary degree of Sc.D. 



During the later years of his life Mr. Em- 

 mons, freed from the cares of official adminis- 

 tration, returned to his studies at Leadville 

 and, in association with Professor John D. 

 Irving, of Tale University, was engaged in 

 extending his earlier results in the light of 

 the additional facts brought out by extensive 

 mining operations continued through two 

 decades. Although some of this newer ma- 

 terial was published in 1907 as Geological 

 Survey Bulletin No. 320 on " The Downtown 

 District of Leadville, Colo.," Mr. Emmons did 

 not live to see the publication of his final 

 results which will, however, before long be 

 issued by the Geological Survey. 



He was one of the founders, in 1905, of the 

 journal Economic Geology and continued his 

 able and enthusiastic cooperation in its behalf 

 up to the time of his death. 



Tall in person, with a figure suggestive of 

 activity and endurance rather than of robust 

 strength, naturally dignified in bearing and 

 distinctive of face, Mr. Emmons, notwith- 

 standing his genuine modesty, was a man to 

 attract notice in any assembly. One element 



of his forceful character was a peculiar shy- 

 ness recognizable by his friends in a certain 

 constraint of manner and bluntness of speech 

 likely to be misunderstood by those who were 

 unaware of his real kindness of heart and of 

 his genial outlook on life. A steadfast and 

 devoted friend, he appeared to be incapable of 

 cherishing resentment and his mind rose high 

 above those petty considerations of priority 

 and credit that too often vex and humiliate 

 the souls of scientific men in spite of their 

 better natures. 



The chief characteristics of his work were 

 thorough painstaking honesty of method, wide 

 and penetrating vision in the interpretation 

 of his facts, remarkable soundness and sta- 

 bility of judgment, and clarity of exposition. 

 Himself able to express his thought in im- 

 usually clear and felicitous language, Mr. 

 Emmons was an invaluable critic, not only of 

 substance but of form, and those geologists 

 who in their younger days were so fortunate 

 as to receive his kindly yet keen criticism, 

 have found their appreciation of what he did 

 for them grow more and more with the pass- 

 ing years and will ever hold him in grateful 

 remembrance. His own writings are an elo- 

 quent protest against the view that sound 

 science can find appropriate expression in 

 slovenly writing.' 



Mr. Emmons was three times married — in 

 1876 to Weltha Anita Steeves, of New York; 

 in 1889 to Sophie Dallas Markoe, of Wash- 

 ington, and in 1903 to Suzanne Earle Ogden- 

 Jones, of Dinard, France, who survives him. 

 He left no children. 



In the course of his long life Mr. Emmons 

 had seen the far west that he knew and loved 

 so well make astonishing progress, especially 

 in the mining industry, and he had the satis- 

 faction of knowing that by his work he had 

 materially advanced this development. He 

 had received unsought and bore modestly the 

 honors that men of science most prize. His 

 name not only stood high on the rolls of sci- 

 ence, but was known to miners throughout the 

 Eocky Mountain region as that of the man 

 who more than any one else had applied geo- 

 logical knowledge in a way to convince them 



