8 PEOCEEDINGS OF THE PITTSBURGH MEETING 



Eboiilement a Saint-Luc de Vincennes, riviere Champlain. Proceedings of the 



Royal Society of Canada, vol. iv, 1900, p. 179. 

 Jacques-Philippe Cornuti. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Canada, vol. 



iv, 1901, p. 57. 

 Influence de la situation geographique de la ville de Quebec sur un point de 



meteorologie locale. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Canada, vol. iv, 



1904, p. 167. 

 Les Tremblements de terre de la region de Quebec. (Map.) Proceedings of 



the Royal Society of Canada, vol. xxv, 1907. 



MEMOIR OF WILLIAM HARMON NILES'' 

 BY GEORGE H. BARTON 



William Harmon Niles, professor emeritus of geology at the Massa- 

 chusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, Massachusetts, died at the 

 Copley Square Hotel, Boston, September 12, 1910, after an illness with 

 a complication of diseases of nearly two years. During this period of 

 illness the death of his wife was a very severe shock which probably 

 hastened his own death. 



Professor Niles was the son of Eev. Asa and Mary A. (Marcy) Niles, 

 and was born at Northampton, Massachusetts, May 18, 1838. From his 

 father he inherited a retentive memory and from his mother his ready 

 use of language and his fondness of nature. His inherited traits of 

 mind were manifested very early in life. In boyhood he was fond of 

 collecting minerals and plants in the region of his home, and his subse- 

 quent career was foreshadowed by his youthful recreations. At the age 

 of sixteen he had a good collection of the minerals of Worthington and 

 of four neighboring towns, which he had gathered, arranged, and labeled. 



Owing to the limited means of a New England clergyman, he was 

 obliged to work his way through school and college. He began teaching 

 in Worthington at the age of seventeen, and taught there four consecu- 

 tive winters, at North Blanford two terms, followed by one at North 

 Becket. Throughout his life Professor Niles often referred to this as 

 the most vivid incident in his life, and from him the present writer has 

 a vivid impression of that boy's thoughts and aspirations as he walked 

 five miles across the hills of western Massachusetts to take charge of his 

 first school, in which many of the pupils were older than himself. During 

 the summer seasons at this time he worked regularly upon his father's 

 farm. It was not until he was twenty that he received his first school 

 instruction in any science. At that time he went to the Wesleyan Acad- 

 emy a Wilbraham, Massachusetts, but he could not remain for consecu- 



sFresented by title. 



