MEMOIR OF W. H. NILES 11 



its people" and on his experiences among the Alps were so well received 

 and so widely delivered that they yielded an important part of his re- 

 sources for travel and extended geographical study. 



He also gave courses of lectures before public audiences. Three 

 courses of twelve lectures each were delivered at the Lowell Institute in 

 Boston, "Geological history, ancient and modern/' "The atmosphere and 

 its phenomena/' and "Physical geography of the land" being the re- 

 spective subjects. Other courses were given for the Boston Society of 

 Natural History, the Teachers' School of Science, and the Appalachian 

 Mountain Club. Two courses were given at the Peabody Institute in 

 Baltimore, and similar courses at Wakefield, Jamaica Plain, Charlestown, 

 and Framingham. The success of his lectures was such that he was 

 sometimes called to speak from fifty to one hundred times in a single 

 season. 



During this time he became interested in the evidences that portions of 

 the crust of the earth, especially those in Massachusetts, which are usually 

 regarded as stable, are really affected by an energy sufficient to sometimes 

 fracture and dislocate them. As a result, he published the following 

 papers : "Peculiar phenomena observed in quarrying," "Effect of pressure 

 upon rocks," "Further notice of rock movements at Monson, Massachu- 

 setts/' "On some expansions, movements, and fractures of rocks observed 

 at Monson, Massachusetts," and "The geological agency of lateral pressure 

 exhibited by certain movements of rocks." 



When Dr. T. S terry Hunt retired from the chair of geology at the 

 institute, in 1878, Professor Niles was appointed professor of geology and 

 geography, with W. 0. Crosby as assistant in geology. From this time 

 these two were constantly associated, and the department of geology as 

 it stood in 1902 was the result of their combined efforts. In 1878 there 

 were no arranged collections at the institute, and very few appliances for 

 instruction in that branch. In 1902 the collections illustrating struc- 

 tural geology, mineralogy, petrology, economic geology, and palgeontology 

 contained over thirty thousand specimens, well arranged and mostly 

 labeled. Professor Niles' principal share in this work was devoted to 

 the collection of paleontology. 



After the founder of the institute, President Rogers, probably no one 

 man has done more to upbuild the institute than did Francis A. Walker 

 when he was its president. That the institute was so fortunate as to 

 obtain General Walker for its president at a most critical period in its 

 history thanks are due to Professor Niles, as it was he who first suggested 

 the consideration of General Walker's name. The reply to this sug- 

 gestion was that there was no probability that he could be obtained. By 



