RECORDS 151 



Professor LeConte loved nature, he loved to wander where 

 civilization had not destroyed its charms. In 1844, with his 

 cousin, John L. LeConte, the entomologist, he journeyed in the 

 northwest, travelling along the upper Mississippi more than one 

 thousand miles in a birchbark canoe, and afterwards visited 

 Lake Superior, piercing a region inhabited then almost wholly 

 by Indians. In later years he spent his vacations in the Sierras, 

 camping where he might make studies of structure. His life 

 closed amid the scenes which had been so dear to him for more 

 than thirty years. 



Professor LeConte was a prolific writer. His early training, 

 both as a student and as teacher, had given him a breadth of cul- 

 ture, which in this day of specialization is becoming too rare. 

 He wrote upon physics, geology and psychology, making to 

 each of these sciences contributions of capital importance. A 

 vein of poetiy runs through his papers, making his style almost 

 unique in the scientific literature of our time. The excellence 

 of his work was recognized at an early date, and he was elected 

 to the American Philosophical Society before the Civil W^ar. 

 He was made member of the National Academy of Sciences 

 shortly after the close of that war. He was president of the 

 American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1892, 

 and of the Geological Society of America in 1896. 



Professor LeConte was a man of positive convictions, which 

 were always expressed in clear-cut language, admitting of no 

 misunderstanding. But there is reason to believe that he had 

 not a personal enem}' in the world. Of singular sweetness of 

 disposition, unfailingly courteous in his manner, he was a wel- 

 come and honored guest wherever he went. His wholesome 

 integrity, his conscientious devotion to accuracy, his keenness 

 as an observer always gained for him a more than respectful 

 hearing in discussion, even from those who remained unwilling 

 to accept his conclusions. He is dead ; but his memory will be 

 cherished affectionately by those who were his associates in 

 science — still more by the students of fifty graduating classes, 

 who were privileged to listen to his lectures, and to find in him 

 one who cared for them as for his own children. 



