698 



SCIENCE, 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 98. 



to commemorate a scientific life of almost 

 the Psalmist's span. " The years of a man 

 are three score years and ten." Here by 

 reason of strength they have gone far be- 

 yond four score years. We may congratu- 

 late the veteran that he has by the mandate 

 of a great State been enlisted for life in this 

 warfare of science, the armor of which has 

 become a part of his very life. 



It is a second happy coincidence that the 

 meeting should have been held in this most 

 hospitable city of Bufialo, in the heart of 

 that old ' Fourth District,' where more than 

 half a century ago the foundations of Ameri- 

 can stratigraphical geology were so broadly 

 and so soundly laid ; where the very names 

 of villages were given new meanings and 

 sanctified to geological uses. 



It is a curiously interesting illustration 

 of this that, wherever in the world a group 

 of geologists is gathered together, the word 

 Niagara, or Ma-grar-a, as our friends beyond 

 the water would call it, would be, perhaps, 

 a little more apt to call to mind the Upper 

 Silurian limestone than the great waterfall 

 and gorge from which the name was taken. 



As I came through Albany on my way 

 hither I was shown the house in which, in 

 1839, a little conference of the geologists of 

 the New York State Survey discussed the 

 proposal from which grew, in the next year, 

 the Association of American Geologists. Of 

 those who made that party only one man 

 remains, besides the master, whose work 

 we celebrate to-day. The American Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science 

 grew out of the Association of American 

 Geologists, and we have heard in general 

 session of the little group of the founders 

 of the American Association in the center 

 of which stands, as its first President, James 

 Hall, of Albany. 



The Geological Society of America is the 

 sturdy grandchild of the Association of 

 American Geologists, and it is a final happy 

 coincidence that in gathering to commemo- 



rate the work of the first President of the 

 Geological Society we should have in the 

 last president of the same Society the 

 veteran geologist of the Pacific coast, the 

 man best fitted to coin into golden words 

 the greetings of us all to the ISTestor of the 

 Paleontologists of America and of Europe — 

 James Hall, of Albany. I call upon Prof. 

 Joseph LeConte, of the University of Cali- 

 fornia, President of the Geological Society 

 of America, to speak in behalf of that 

 Society. 



Prof. LeConte responded to the invitation 

 of the presiding oflicer in the following 

 terms : 



I am sure that no words of mine are 

 necessary to introduce to you the much- 

 loved, much-revered Nestor of American ge- 

 ology. Prof. James Hall. I am asked to 

 say a very few on behalf of the Geological 

 Society. If it were for any other man I 

 should have begged off; but when it is for 

 him whom we all delight to honor, this is 

 impossible. 



Sixty years of unremitting work — of un- 

 swerving purpose, directed toward one end, 

 and that the noblest ! Is not this the defin- 

 ition of a great work ; more of a great life; 

 still more of a great man ? Such a work, 

 such a life and such a man are united in 

 the person of James Hall. Surely in an 

 important sense he may be called the 

 founder of American geology. Others with 

 him, and even before him, have done good 

 work, for which we are grateful ; but he 

 alone not only laid a foundation as others 

 helped to do, but continued for 60 years to 

 build thereon a solid and beautiful edifice. 

 The geology and paleontology of surveyors 

 in his hands thus became an organized, 

 systematic body of knowledge, about which 

 gathered as a nucleus our whole knowledge 

 of American geology. 



But I am not here to give an analysis 

 and Estimate of his great work. Others 



