Clarence King. 229 



the three years originally planned were subsequently extended, 

 by the unsolicited action of Congress, to seven. 



In recognition of the legitimacy of the public demand for a 

 direct application of the results of government geological work, 

 King pushed first to completion a scientific study of the ore 

 deposits of the region surveyed ; more particularly of the great 

 Comstock Lode, whose enormous silver product was then dis- 

 turbing the monetary system of the country. This work, 

 written conjointly by himself and James D. Hague, appeared 

 as early as 1870 under the title of " Mining Industry." It 

 was described by one of its most capable critics as " by itself a 

 scientific manual of American precious metal mining and 

 metallurgy." It is considered classic among works in its line 

 and has served as a model for similar monographs which have 

 since been published under government auspices and done so 

 much to raise the mining industry of America to its present 

 high position. 



In 1870 he discovered on the slopes of Mt. Shasta the first 

 actual glaciers known to exist in the United States ; and in 

 their study made observations that are credited with first sug- 

 gesting the true origin of the kettle-holes and kames of New 

 England. His later discovery in the summer of 1874, that a 

 line of islands along the southern coast of New England were 

 a part of its terminal moraine, had much influence in inducing 

 the later systematic studies of the Continental glacier. 



The field work of the Survey was completed in 1873, but it 

 was 1877 before the respective specialists had been able to 

 work up the amount of material gathered, for it was one of 

 King's fundamental principles that abundant collections should 

 be made in the field to illustrate all the natural phenomena 

 observed, and the lithological collections alone numbered about 

 five thousand specimens. 



In 1874, he sent one member of his corps to Europe to 

 study the methods of European geological surveys and to 

 obtain the best and latest geological literature with which at 

 that time American libraries were but scantily provided. He, 

 also, instructed him to confer with Prof. Zirkel, then the 

 greatest microscopical petrographer of the day, and to induce 

 him, if possible, to visit America and study in the presence of 

 the collectors their collection of rock specimens, for at that 

 time no American geologist had any practical knowledge of 

 this new branch of geology. From this visit resulted Zirkel's 

 volume on microscopical petrography, which marked the open- 

 ing of a new era in geological study in the United States. 



King reserved for himself the final summarizing of the 

 work of his assistants and the drawing of general conclusions 

 and theoretical deductions therefrom. This he wrote in the 



A.M. Jour. Sci. — Fourth Series, Vol. XIII, No. 75. — March, 1902. 

 16 



