MEMORIAL OF O. H. SAINT JOHN 39 



time to time by the Santa Fe Eailroad and other large interests, covering 

 parts of the country from Oklahoma to Mexico, all of which were carried 

 out and reported on with the conscientious care and fidelity for which 

 he was so well known and which commanded the implicit confidence of 

 those for whom he worked. Above all, he valued his scientific reputation 

 and sought for the unquestionable facts by which his conclusions could 

 be demonstrated. No argument or an}' amount of persuasion could in- 

 duce him to give an opinion which could not be easily confirmed by actual 

 observation as opposed to mere conjecture. His clients were thus often 

 compelled to submit to disappointment in their expectations," but with a 

 corresponding saving in loss from unsuccessful investment. 



Later Saint John went to New Mexico to investigate the coal outlook 

 of that region. So early as 1874 he and Mr. Frank Springer had begun 

 privately a study of this field. Then for two seasons his attention was 

 diverted from this work because of his duties on the Hayden Surveys of 

 the Territories. To this New Mexico investigation he returned at irreg- 

 ular intervals until 1891, when becoming connected with the Maxwell 

 Land Grant Company he took it up as his opus magnum. During the five 

 years that he was thus engaged for the Maxwell Company he made a 

 detailed survey of the great Eaton coal field as it is today known. This 

 was his crowning achievement in applied geology. 



His especial study in the Eaton field was with a view of ascertaining 

 the magnitude and possibilities of the coal reserves for large industrial 

 enterprises in which moneyed men might safely invest their capital. 

 This effort consumed over a dozen years of the most detailed and pains- 

 taking labor. All natural exposures were examined and mapped, pros- 

 pect holes by the thousand were dug, hundreds of coal tests were made, 

 and all this information was reduced to reports of minutest accuracy. 

 When the Saint Louis, Eocky Mountain and Pacific Eailroad was pro- 

 jected, two of the most expert and favorably known coal geologists of the 

 East were brought out, and they spent three months reviewing the work. 

 At the end of this verification they accepted his reports in every particular 

 and declared that there was nothing more to be said. It was on the basis 

 of his examinations and reports that this great enterprise was launched 

 and successfully operated for a decade and a half. An unlimited future 

 lay before it, covering, as it did, the largest tonnage of coking coal under 

 a single ownership in the United States. After the coal rights were 

 acquired by the railroad Saint John became its geologist, a post which 

 lie held for 25 years. 



It was at Eaton that I first made personal acquaintance with Saint 

 John. It was in 1902, when I was making some private inspections in 



