20 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NEW HAVEN MEETING 



enterprise was not financially successful, nor was the invention a pioneer 

 in its class. 



It was apparently about this time (1871) that McGee's attention was 

 first directed to geology. Just what the incident was that first claimed 

 his attention and stimulated his interest in what was later to be one of 

 the dominating activities of his life is not known. The glacial mantle 

 which so completely covers northeastern Iowa offered many then un- 

 solved problems, and together with his brothers he explored with keen in- 

 terest the numerous caves about their home and studied the peculiar 

 rocky topography with more than boyish interest. He read widely of 

 such books and papers as were then available on glaciation and its phe- 

 nomena, and began independent observations which soon brought him 

 into communication and contact with other workers in this field. The 

 fact that he joined the American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science in 18T8 (27th meeting. St. Louis. August. 1878), enrolling him- 

 self in the section of geology, shows that his interest was even then crys- 

 tallizing along these lines. So far as learned, his first scientific paper, 

 "On the relative position of the forest bed and associated formations in 

 northeastern Iowa."' was published in 1878 and was the forerunner of 

 many of like import. Between the years 1ST 7 and 1881 he prosecuted, 

 as a private enterprise, a topographic and geologic survey of some 12,000 

 square miles of territory in northeastern Iowa, though the full results 

 were not published until 1891. 



McGee's first work under Federal auspices was a report on the building 

 stones of Iowa, prepared for the Tenth Census of 1880, though not pub- 

 lished until four years later. This, but more especially his careful work 

 on the multifarious phenomena, of glaciation in the upper Mississippi 

 Valley, had attracted wider attention, and in July. 1883. he was called to 

 the H. S. Geological Survey, then under the directorship of Major J. W. 

 Powell. In a very short time he was placed in charge of the division of 

 Atlantic Coastal Plain geology. Although then but thirty years of age, 

 he came, not as a mere tyro or dabbler in geology, as might be presumed 

 from his previous isolation, but with an astonishing breadth of view and 

 maturity of judgment, and within the next ten years he erected a founda- 

 tion which must always be considered by any who would study the geol- 

 ogy of the Coastal Plain. This decade — 1883-1894 — covers the period 

 of his most intensive, constructive geological activities. He resigned 

 from the Geological Survey on June 30. 1893. to assume on the following 

 day the position of ethnologist in the Bureau of American Ethnology, to 

 which department he had accompanied Major Powell. One year later 

 he became ethnologist in charge of the Bureau, and continued in this 



