>rKNrOKlAL OV C. 11. VAN IIISF] 101 



definite and ascertainable laws. His thought and elTort were directed 

 toward the discernment of tliese laws, and details of observation were of 

 interest to him only as a means to this end. While he appreciated the 

 necessity for careful descriptive work and for the assembling of mis- 

 cellaneous information, his own main interest frankly did not lie in this 

 direction. Yet he was indefatigable in searching for details necessary to 

 establish basic principles and he was able to use and hold an astonishing 

 mass of them when they fitted into the general story. We find this man- 

 ner of approach to scientific problems illustrated in each of his principal 

 lines of investigation. 



Many geologists had worked in the Lake Superior iron and copper 

 region and had brought together a large number of detailed observations. 

 After having absorbed and added to these by years of painstaking field 

 study, Van Hise proceeded to build them into the first definite and con- 

 nected story of the region and to present this story simply and broadly 

 with its background of general principles. Even the layman was then 

 able to see some order in apparent chaos. The principles worked out by 

 A'an Hise have become the basis for the work of other investigators in 

 this field. There is to this day scarcely a bit of geologic study, drilling, 

 underground development, or other exploration in the Lake Superior 

 region that does not take these general principles into account. Xot only 

 has the telling of the general story had a profound effect on the local 

 investigation and mining of Lake Superior, but as a result of it the Lake 

 Superior region has become almost a classical area for pre-Cambrian 

 study the world over, it being one of the few places where light has been 

 thrown on the history of the pre-Cambrian, or oldest rocks. The Lake 

 Superior region being really the southern margin of the great pre- 

 ( 'ambrian area of Canada, its geologic history and principles have a 

 marked influence on the investigation of the vast areas of the far north. 



The vistas through ancient geologic history opened in the Lake Su- 

 ])erior region led naturally to the consideration of other pre-Cambrian 

 areas of North America. After wid<' trav(»l and observation. Van Hise 

 ])ublished a general account of the pre-Cambrian geology of Xorth 

 America, which for the first time brought together simply and broadly 

 the general features of pre-Cambrian history and established lines of 

 correlation and comparison. Some of these generalizations have })rove!l 

 too sweeping, others seem well established, but in any case they have 

 stimulated efforts to get at the fundamentals of ])re-Cambrian history. 

 I would mention especially the opening of the fi(dd of prc-Cand)riaii 

 study by \'an Hise's view that ])re-Cambrian rocks and history, from 

 earliest known vestiges, indicate the same behavior and coiidit ions of 



