44 PEOCEEDIXGS OF THE BALTIMORE MEETIXG 



maps of their location, Tliis attracted mncli attention. The President 

 <jf the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama was present, and 

 was so pleased with the exliibit that he tendered Doctor Mell the chair of 

 Xatural History at Auburn. Having regained his health, he went to 

 Auburn in the fall of 1ST8. Yet he always looked back on those eighteen 

 months in the mountains as perhaps the fullest and happiest of his life, 

 and later expressed regret that he had not given his entire time to geo- 

 logical work, as that was his favorite subject. He often confessed to me 

 that he believed he would have made a greater reputation for himself as 

 11 geologist than as a college president. 



For some years he spent all of his vacations prospecting in the moun- 

 tains or at Claiborne, Alabama, where he collected the famous Claiborne 

 fossils from the bluffs by the river. He arranged collections for exchange, 

 and in this way acquired many valuable specimens for the museum. His 

 collection at Auburn, which was the finest in the South, received the 

 highest commendation from experts from all parts of the country. When 

 the college building burned in June of 1887, he was away, and the tele- 

 gram, "N'othing saved of all your valuable collection," so depressed him 

 that he never had the heart to replace it, though he always aided in build- 

 ing up the museum. Doctor Mell had scientific correspondents all over 

 the world. Among these was Jacques De Morgan, then a young man, 

 afterward the great Assyrian and Eg}q)tian explorer. 



In 1884, when the State TTeather Service was started, Doctor Mell was 

 asked to take charge of the work for Georgia, Florida, and Alabama, with 

 his office at Auburn. When the bureaus were formed in the separate 

 States, he retained the direction of the one at Auburn for Alabama, doing 

 this in addition to his college work. This position he kept until 1893. 

 The system of weather signals now used by the United States Weather 

 Bureau was his invention. He was repeatedly asked by the officials in 

 Washington to allow himself to be made Chief of the Weather Bureau, 

 but he always declined. 



From 1898 to 1902 he was connected with the Alabama Experiment 

 Station. He carried on many valuable experiments in cotton-breeding 

 during these years. He was asked to arrange the cotton exhibit of the 

 Southern States for the Paris Exposition in 1900. 



Wliile at Alabama he was thrice tempted to leave his scientific work 

 for executive. He declined the presidency of Mercer University in 1893 

 and of the Xorth Georgia Agricultural College in 1897, but in 1902 he 

 at last yielded to the insistent demands for his services in this other 

 capacity, and became President of Clemson College, South Carolina, 

 which position he held for eight years. It was as a college president that 



