MEMORIAL OF 0. H. SAINT JOHN 31 



MEMORIAL OF ORESTES HAWLEY SAINT JOHN 1 

 BY CHARLES R. KEYES 



One of the first elected fellows of our Society, Orestes Hawley Saint 

 John really belonged to an earlier generation and found place in the 

 third quarter of the last century. Although well past the ripe age of 

 fourscore years at the time of his demise, he was so long retired from 

 active service among us that few of our present fellows were personally 

 acquainted with him. For more than 20 years he was unable to attend 

 our meetings ; yet he was our foremost authority on the fossil fishes, and 

 his contributions in this field greatly enriched our voluminous American 

 literature on this subject. 



As a field geologist, Saint John had few equals and certainly no su- 

 periors. So keen were his observational powers in the geological direc- 

 tion that he was finally inveigled into deserting the purely scientific 

 realm which he had so auspiciously entered in Brazil, Iowa, Illinois, and 

 Kansas, and on the Hayden surveys in Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and 

 New Mexico, and into expending his superior powers on the more re- 

 munerative economic aspects. 



It was due mainly to the results of his really brilliant investigations 

 in the New Mexican region that the richest coal field on the North Amer- 

 ican continent was brought into market. For more than 30 years he was 

 retained as geologist of the company owning the largest acreage of coking 

 coal in this country. It was a very great pity that his magnificent abili- 

 ties could not have been reserved to science, pure and simple. 



Saint John's penetration in the tracing, interpreting, and predicting 

 the position and continuity of geological formations was almost uncanny. 

 His results in these directions were of the highest order. The large 

 amounts of capital invested and the huge industrial enterprises set in 

 motion on the strength of his examinations and reports amply attest the 

 basic value of good geological insight in all exploitations of mineral re- 

 sources. In a very remarkable way were his predictions fully verified by 

 subsequent operations. His was one of the most salutary lessons of our 

 new century in mineral development. His signal success in industrial 

 lines and the large measure of esteem with which his researches were 

 held only demonstrated too well that there are some enlightened cor- 

 porations engaged in mining that do not treat lightly the intuitive knowl- 

 edge of the trained scientist. 



Although our confrere gave up his own predilections and ambitions 

 in pure science, the world may never know how large was the measure 



1 Manuscript received by tho Secretary of the Society December 31, 1021. 



