00 Obituary. 



York on June 1st, 1826, and was educated at the Scientific 

 Scliool of Yale University in 1852, being one of tliree to receive 

 the degree of Pii.B. in tiie first class of the institution; his col- 

 leagues were Professors Brush and Brewer of New Haven. 



The career of Professor Blake was interesting and varied, 

 especially in the exploration of wild regions which have now 

 become comparatively well-known. From 1854 to 1856 he acted 

 as mineralogist and geologist in the explorations and surveys for 

 the proposed Pacific railroad, reaching California by the southern 

 route only a few years after the discovery of gold, when the 

 excitement was still at its height. At that time he first called 

 attention to the great Colorado desert with its extensive area 

 below the sea-level. He also carried on mining explorations in 

 North Carolina and Georgia in 1860, and from 1861 to 1863, with 

 Mr. Raphael Pumpelly, was employed by the Japanese Gov<jrn- 

 ment in the examination of the mineral resources of that country. 

 Before returning from Japan he visited China and also Alaska, 

 where he explored the Stickeen River and its glaciers. This was 

 shortly before Alaska was purchased by the United States Gov- 

 ernment in 1867. In 1863 he visited California again, and was 

 engaged as mining expert in connection with the Comstock lode. 

 His varied work in similar lines was further extended by a trip to 

 Santo Domingo in 1871. In another direction also he served his 

 country and science well and had wide experience of a different 

 kind, being Commissioner to the World's Fair of 1853, as 

 also at the subsequent World's Fairs of Vienna in 1873, Phila- 

 delphia in 1876 — the Centennial Exposition — and Paris in 

 1878. In 1864 he was Professor for a time in the College of 

 California, later the University of California, and thirty years 

 afterwards he became Professor of Geology and Director of the 

 School of Mines of the University of Arizona ; he was also terri- 

 torial geologist of Arizona for many years. In 1895 he became 

 Professor emeritus ; his death came suddenly from pneumonia 

 when he lacked but a few days of completing his 84th year. 



Dr. Geoege Fredekick Barker, Professor of Chemistry, 

 emeritus, at the University of Pennsylvania and for many years 

 an associate editor of this Journal, died on May 24 at the age of 

 seventy-five years. A notice is deferred till a later number. 



Professor Franklin C. Robinson, the chemist, long con- 

 nected with Bowdoin College, died on May 25 at the age of fifty- 

 eight years. 



August von Mickwitz, the well-known City Engineer and 

 Paleontologist of Reval, Russia, died on April 20th last at the 

 age of 61 years. His best known work in paleontology treats of 

 the Upper Cambrian Obolidae and Lingulidaj of western Russia. 



Robert H. Gordon, long interested in the geology of western 

 Maryland, and the donor of extensive collections of the finely 

 preserved Lower Devonian fossils of this region to the U. S. 

 National Museum and to Yale University, died on May lOih last 

 at the age of 58 years. 



