Grove Karl Gilbert. 681 



unhappily the maps on which much of Gilbert's new 

 observations had been recorded were destroyed by sad 

 mischance in the following winter, and under this dis- 

 couragement further field work was suspended. The 

 main results of the study were, however, presented at a 

 meeting of the Geological Society of America in Wash- 

 ington, in the winter of 1903-04, in a manner that was 

 convincing to many if not to all hearers ; but the printed 

 record in the Society's Bulletin was compressed into a 

 few lines, which merely state that the evidence of great 

 faulting lies in the occurrence of extensive shear zones, in 

 triangular facets at ridge ends, and in the even linear 

 bases of the ranges. Thus, in spite of the clear concep- 

 tion of the problem indicated by Gilbert's oral presenta- 

 tion, the printed record remains deficient. 



The loss of the map was probably the larger cause of 

 this brevity, but a contributing cause was failing health, 

 as a result of which it had become increasingly difficult 

 for this master of exposition to apply himself to writing. 

 For the same reason he later had to forego attendance at 

 scientific meetings and participation in discussions. 

 Thus at the very time when all his associates would have 

 most delighted to welcome and to honor him, they saw the 

 least of him; yet those who were still favored to meet 

 him found, if not the same strength, the same noble 

 geniality that they had learned before to love admiringly. 

 Indeed, these years of withdrawal were marked by a 

 serenity of mind that made his face more than ever 

 benign. All his fine qualities seemed to shine forth 

 undimmed: — openness of mind, breadth of sympathy, 

 calmness of judgment, mental honesty, sincere humility 

 in the contemplation of mysteries unsolved. One of Gil- 

 bert's last projects, after the completion of his two Cali- 

 fornia tasks, was to visit for the third time the scene of 

 his early work and to take up yet again the origin of the 

 Basin ranges, but health failed him. In the spring of 

 the present year many of his friends, acting on a sugges- 

 tion from the office of the Survey where he had so faith- 

 fully labored, wrote letters of congratulation that were 

 to be presented to him on his seventy-fifth birthday ; but 

 these messages of affectionate regard failed to reach him 

 by the narrow interval of frve days. He died at Jackson, 

 Michigan, on May 1. 



William M. Davis. 



