MHMOKIAL OF G. K GILBERT 37 



The siiinnior of 1877 was spent in irrigation studies for Powell, and 

 that of 18T8 to designing and executing a triangulation system in the 

 Plateau Province as a base for topographic surveys. 



'J'he period of the Powell Survey was thus one of diversified activities 

 for (iilbert, but it was, nevertheless, very productive from the geologic 

 und physiographic standpoint. The Henry Mountains report, which de- 

 fined and fixed the laccolite conception of structure and which contains 

 also the remarkable chapter on "Land sculpture," was completed early in 

 1877. The greater part of this chapter had been published in the Ameri- 

 can Journal of Science for July and August, 1876, under the title "The 

 Colorado Plateau Province as a field for geological study .'^ 



Powell's "Lands of the arid region," issued in 1879, contains two chap- 

 tors by Gilbert, one on water supply and one on the irrigable lands of the 

 t Salt Lake drainage system, and various brief papers were published on 

 the Wasatch and on Bonneville features. Gilbert's part in the topo- 

 graphic work of the Powell Survey, now remembered by so few, is ap- 

 preciatively outlined by Captain John H. Renshaw in a letter prepared 

 as one of those which it was intended that Gilbert should receive on his 

 7oth birthday anniversary. T quote. 



"I venture to say that few men . . . know of this example of your ver- 

 sjtility — how you planned and executed the scheme of triangulation connect- 

 ing; the old Gunnison base witli the provisional base at Kanab, and later in the 

 season had the latter base remeasured with a most ingenious apparatus de- 

 s!gne<l by yourself and constructed under your personal direction ; how, during 

 the following office season, the whole scheme was adjusted and computed and 

 stands today as a standard.** 



With the abolition of the preexisting surveys in 1879 and the creation 

 of the L'nited States Geological Survey, Gilbert became one of its six 

 senior geologists and remained an honored member of its staff until his 

 death. 



P>ut. beginning almost immediately, science began to pay the penalty 

 that is usually paid when men of established wisdom and ability become 

 members of large organizations. (Gilbert was withdrawn more and more 

 completely from personal research and utilized in the general problems 

 of oriranization and administration. For the first two years he retained 

 headquarters in Salt Lake, continued his Bonneville studies, and ad- 

 rtiinistered the Division of the (ircat P)asin ; but with tlic appoinlnieiit of 

 Powell as Director in March, 1881, (;i^bcrt was recalled to Washington. 

 Powell desired to have close at hand the wise and balanced counsel of his 

 coexplorer and trusted adviser: hence the ])eriod from 1881 to 1892 is 

 :! period in wliidi (nlbiTt's duties were largely administrative. In 188;? 



