290 G. K. Gilbert — Inculcation of Scientific Method. 



fellow-workers in the special field the fullest advantage of his 

 material. Some steps of his progress, which did not prove 

 suggestive to him, will find fertile ground in the mind of 

 another and bear fruit. This consideration places the progress 

 of knowledge before the glory of the individual, and is opposed 

 by a natural egoism ; but it is only the man of small calibre 

 who has no ideas to spare, and secretiveness in matters of 

 science is ordinarily a confession of weakness. 



It was intimated a moment ago that precept unsupported by 

 example could not be depended on to infuse method — and the 

 dictum applies even to the burden of this discourse. I am 

 persuaded that my meaning will be better apprehended if I 

 supplement my disquisition by an outline of an investigation 

 of my own. The seeming egotism must be condoned, for it is 

 manifestly impossible for me to trace out the actual course of 

 observation and reasoning in the case of another's work. 



To guard against possible misapprehension it is necessary to 

 emphasize the fact that the following discussion contains an 

 outline merely of its subject. Its subject is a certain geologic 

 uplift that has been observed in Utah. To render it intelli- 

 gible to those who are unacquainted with the literature of 

 the geology of Utah, it will be introduced by a short account of 

 Lake Bonneville. 



The basin of Great Salt Lake lies in a region of mountains ; 

 to picture its character to your mind, conceive a plain the sur- 

 face of which is embossed by parallel ridges of moderate 

 length, from fifteen to twenty-five miles apart, and from 2,000 

 to 6,000 or 7,000 feet high. Conceive further that portions of 

 this plain are uplifted, together with their mountain ridges, so 

 as to enclose a basin 150 miles in either dimension, and you 

 have the general structure of the district in question. The 

 debris washed down from the mountains has for ages accumu- 

 lated in this depression, so that the central-lying mountain 

 ridges are nearly buried ; indeed there is reason to suspect that 

 some of them are quite buried, a plain of fine silt being spread 

 smoothly over them. Great Salt Lake itself lies on the east 

 side of the basin ; the western half, which is only a few feet 

 higher, is a saline desert. 



In the last geologic epoch — the Glacial Epoch — the lake 

 expanded so as to fill the basin to overflowing. The water 

 surface was then very much larger, and as its area included the 

 basins of several lakes now independent, it has been given a 

 separate name. Lake Bonneville was very irregular in form ; 

 the mountain ranges of the basin ran long peninsulas from its 

 north and south shores, and projected from its surface in numer- 

 ous islands. The Quaternary winds, playing on its surface, 

 dashed waves against its shores, and the spits and beaches and 



