MEMOIR OP JAMES HALL 433 



though we can not fail to see his impress in the method of every man 

 who ever labored with him, yet we find the individuality of every man 

 unchanged, so that his independent work is characteristically his own. 



As a mere collector, Professor Hall could hardly be surpassed. He 

 knew no duplicates ; no two specimens of any species seemed precisely 

 alike. He was one of the first to maintain the danger of mere species- 

 making, and to insist on the gathering of abundant material. When he 

 collected, he collected all there was. He believed in thorough work, 

 whether in collecting or in studying. His first collection, on which was 

 based much of his published work, went to the American Museum of 

 Natural History in New York city, and much of the money obtained for 

 it was expended in gathering another collection of immense bulk. 



There is danger of forgetting that Professor Hall was preeminently a 

 geologist. His quartos on the New York paleontology are his monu- 

 ment, and the casual observer is liable to see in him a biologist rather 

 than a geologist ; but until his later 3^ears he was a geologist. His studies 

 were from the standpoint of one seeking to determine relations between 

 the physical and biological conditions in order to solve problems of cor- 

 relation. The great problems of geology, not those of biology, were 

 uppermost in his mind until less than twenty years ago. His presiden- 

 tial address to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 in 1857, was so far in advance of the time as to be thought not merely 

 absurd but mystical ; yet today it is recognized as one of the most im- ' 

 portant contributions to one of the most difficult problems in physical 

 geology. Even in his later years, when biological problems had assumed 

 their proper importance for him, he would have resented an intimation 

 that he was any less of geologist than before. When he succeeded in 

 rehabilitating the New York survey, the economic side was not forgotten, 

 and the annual reports presented to the legislature have been of late 

 years as useful from the economic as from the scientific standpoint. 



Professor Hall's work received recognition at home and .abroad. He 

 was foreign member of the L ;ndon Geological Society, vice-president of 

 the French Geological Society, correspondent of the Institute, foreign 

 member of the Lincei, and of many other societies and academies. He 

 had received the Wollaston medal and had been decorated by several 

 monarchs. He was vice-president of the Geological Congresses at Paris 

 and Bologna and honorary president of that at Washington. He was a 

 charter member of the National Academy of Sciences and was president 

 of the American Association in 1856. He received the degree of LL. D. 

 from Hamilton College in 1863 and from McGill University in 1884. 



As a youth, Professor Hall must have been merry and inclined to cast 



LXII— Bull. Geol. Soc. Am., Vol. 10, 1898 



