36 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ALBANY MEETING 



these had been removed in grading, it was still possible to determine the rela- 

 tive heights of most of them, and if I could see correctly* the oldest of these 

 ridges were lower than the newest were. The parts of the ridges which have 

 been least disturbed are those which lie on the west side of the Lynnway and 

 the Revere Beach and Lynn Railroad. Here, in the salt marsh, there is a 

 series of spits which run back from the beaches into the marsh, and the oldest 

 ones again are certainly lower than the most recent, as is shown both by the 

 vegetation and by actual observation of the tide-marks." 



In 1914 Davis spent a good deal of time in Minnesota and Utah with 

 David White^ whom as an equally good geologist and botanist and as 

 companionable a man he had found a kindred soul. White introduced 

 him to the leaf peat and brown oil shales of the West. 



In 1915 Davis was back in Maine once more, amid the scenes of his 

 youth, still at work on peat and thinking of subsidence. 



When I came to the Washington meeting, Christmas, 1915, I found 

 him looking extra pale and worn, as he had been nursing his wife nights 

 and doing his work by day — burning the candle at both ends. He tried 

 to attend the meetings with his usual faithfulness, but found it a good 

 deal of a task. And I remember how glad we were to go off and see 

 Gerty, the trained Dinosaur, at the moving pictures one afternoon. 



The last postal I have from him was dated February 9, 1916, and he 

 writes : 



"Yours just received. The last few weeks I have been working on a series 

 of natural organic substances, apparently derived from peat or lignite, and 

 hope before long to get out a paper on them, as they may have some scientific 

 interest and possibly also some economic value. Am sorry I cannot go to New 

 York at this time. The Bureau will undoubtedly be represented there by sev- 

 eral of the engineers." 



The letter to C K. Dodge, al)ove cited, was later. Only a short time 

 after this came the news that he was dangerously ill. Acute Brights dis- 

 ease soon did its fatal work and he passed from this life April 9, 191G. 

 His body was carried back to Portsmouth. 



While impressing one as slow in speech, quiet, kindly and genial ratlier 

 than jovial, he had a keen appreciation of his wife's wit, and his occa- 

 sional sallies were all the more brilliant and like an occasional flash of 

 lightning as contrasted with the coruscations of his wife. For instance, 

 the family were gathered at the windows of the house in Ann Arbor 

 watching the passers-by scurrying from before the drops of a sudden 

 thunder-storm. Down the street came a large and majestic negress as 

 slowly as though the rain had not begun. "Look at that colored woman. 



* The work was done. His eye did not deceive him. 



