128 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1021 



eral others, express the esteem of his colleagues 

 for the record he has left. 



The science of geology renders high service 

 to her followers in return for services ren- 

 dered to her; she carries them far afield and 

 opens up to them the guiding influences of all 

 activities which have to do with the earth. If 

 " an undevout astronomer is mad," even so is 

 an uninspired or narrow-minded geologist. I 

 am. sure every geologist of long and loving con- 

 tact with the earth feels that he is " the free- 

 man," the real proprietor of " the varied fields 

 of nature " ; " the mountains, and the valleys 

 and the resplendent rivers " are " by an empha- 

 sis of interest his." They are a heritage into 

 which the acolyte but gradually comes, for the 

 devotees of this science must render first an 

 implicit and exclusive service to her elemen- 

 tary factors before they can venture far from 

 her leading strings. They must first be 

 " mere computers and measurers " to whom 

 the science is no more than " chemical analy- 

 ses, calculations of times and distances, label- 

 ing of species," men who " are seeking scien- 

 tific knowledge for its proximate values " until 

 such time as they grow into " an increasing 

 consciousness of its ultimate value in the 

 transfiguration of things." 



In looking over the accounts which have 

 been given in tributes already rendered to 

 Professor WincheU's career, there stands out 

 with perfect clarity the fact of his undivided 

 devotion to geology through long years, when 

 once he had found his measure, and the climax 

 of this service was the execution from incep- 

 tion to end of the Geological and Natural His- 

 tory Survey of Minnesota; but even this finely 

 rounded work was but a stepping stone to 

 broader human relations. 



Professor "Winchell, like his distinguished 

 elder brother Alexander, Professor Orton, 

 Major Powell, 0. C. Marsh, Israel C. EusseU, 

 all geologists of great eminence, was a child 

 of New York. The venerable Geological Sur- 

 vey of New York would like to feel that it had 

 had some influence in giving direction to the 

 notable careers of these men. It may have 

 been so in a measure, though perhaps least of 

 aU in Professor WincheU's ease, for the hard 



scrabble farm on the sadly confused rocks in 

 the town of North East, Dutchess county, 

 where he was bom and passed his childhood, 

 may hardly have developed such a tendency 

 toward an after lifework, no matter how much 

 the constraints of a sterile soil might contrib- 

 ute to sturdy robustness of physique and 

 character. 



It has been said that Professor WincheU's 

 performance in the execution of the Minnesota 

 Survey has not been equalled in the history of 

 American geology. The act providing for this 

 comprehensive service was not dravm by him 

 or enacted for him, but upon its passage in. 

 1872 he was called from Ann Arbor and put in 

 charge of the work. The organization that 

 began with him ended in him, and, in view of 

 its scope, his record is unique. 



The plan of this undertaking, says Dr. Pol- 

 well, who as president of the University of 

 Minnesota drew the bill and secured its enact- 

 ment, was to have the work carried on by the 

 members of the university faculty and this was 

 done for a while, Professor WincheU holding 

 the double position at the head of the survey 

 and of the department of geology, but the in- 

 creasing duties of the former compelled an 

 eventual divorce of the two. Por twenty-eight 

 years without interruption he carried forward 

 this scientific survey of a commonwealth cov- 

 ering eighty thousand square miles of territory 

 and when the work was done or " the survey 

 closed," as it is rather unhappily said, the in- 

 formation acquired and the problems discussed 

 and the potentialities indicated had been pre- 

 sented to the world in a series of twenty-four 

 annual reports, ten bulletins and six imposing 

 quartos. It is distinctly to the credit of 

 Winchell that he was never really succeeded in 

 office. His state regarded his duty discharged 

 and his work well done; but it did not stand 

 so much to the credit of Minnesota that it 

 could regard a geological survey as ever 

 " closed." 



The selection of Professor Winchell for a 

 work of such importance to his state shows by 

 its event, the wise insight of those who had 

 the hopes of the organization in their keeping. 

 There were stiU " geologists " in those days : 



