60 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NEW HAVEN MEETING 



memory of all who knew him. His latest portrait is the most impressive one. 

 The thin, eager, vivacious, kindly face, with its halo of silver hair, was inspir- 

 ing in its dignity and sweetness. For him the hoary head was a crown of glory. 



The quickness of all his movements was remarkable. Even in old age he 

 walked uphill and down at a pace which students found it easier to admire 

 than to imitate. The quickness of his physical movements was an expression 

 of the sensitiveness of nervous organization which gave such intense vivacity 

 to his mental work. 



The restraints imposed by the condition of his health isolated him from 

 society in general. Yet he was delightfully companionable to those who had 

 the privilege of entering the precincts of his quiet aud secluded life. His con- 

 versation was enlivened with a delicate humor, and in controversy he could 

 be sarcastic. His courtesy was the expression of real kindness of heart. His 

 helpful interest in the work of younger scientific men has left rich store of 

 grateful memories. As son, brother, husband, father, friend, his life in all the 

 relations of most intimate affection was pure and gentle. 



His was a genius to be admired, a character to be reverenced, a personality 

 to be loved. 



DANA, THE TEACHER 

 BY EDMUND OTIS HOVEY 



Geology at Yale, though it covers the history of the science in this country, 

 is but little more than a century old. the first lectures in what was then con- 

 sidered a dangerous aud revolutionary subject having been given by Prof. 

 Benjamin Silliman. the elder, in 1S06. Just fifty years later. February 18, 

 1856. Prof. James Dwight Dana began his active class-room work as the Silli- 

 man professor of natural history, the chair having been established a few 

 years previously by Prof. Edward E. Salisbury for the purpose of keeping at 

 Yale the rising naturalist, whose fame was already more than national. Pro- 

 fessor Dana, therefore, was no longer strictly a young man when he began his 

 work in the class-room. Forty-three years had passed over his head, but more 

 than thirty of them had been years of wonderful preparation. A collector of 

 natural history specimens as a mere child, his bent had been fostered in the, 

 for those days, unusually ambitious science department of the Bartlett Acad- 

 emy, at Utica. N. Y. 



Daniel C. Gilman. Dana's biographer, quotes a letter from Dr. M. M. Bagg, 

 of Utica, descriptive of this school, and Fay Edgerton. its science master, who 

 was a pupil of Amos Eaton, one of America's pioneers in geology, who in turn 

 had been a student under Silliman. Edgerton was by nature a teacher, and 

 he took his pupils on long walks into the neighboring country, "showing them 

 (according to Doctor Bagg) where to go in pursuit of whatever was instructive 

 or curious, assisting them in the naming and care of their specimens and in- 

 spiring them with (his own) zeal for natural science. During the long summer 

 vacations he (Edgerton) made lengthy excursions with half a dozen or more 

 of his class to distant parts of the State or neighboring ones, visiting localities 

 that abounded in particular rocks or minerals, and bringing home stores for 

 their own or the school collection. These excursions were made almost wholly 

 on foot, a single horse and wagon accompanying the party to carry their scanty 



