Clarence King — Geologist 



the Directorship of the United States 

 Geological Survey. His earnestness 

 and energy is shown by the fact that 

 instead of waiting for the slow action 

 of Congress, he defrayed the cost of 

 the delicate apparatus necessary for 

 this work out of his own pocket. The 

 credit of the brilliant physical in- 

 vestigations carried on in that labora- 

 tory is naturally due to Professors 

 Barus and Hallock, who conducted 

 them, but it was King's acumen and 

 good judgment that was responsible 

 for their selection, and his action 

 that made it possible for them to 

 carry on their work. To himself, as 

 he says ten years later in his paper 

 on "The Age of the Earth," * he re- 

 served the privilege of " making geo- 

 logical applications of the laboratory 

 results." The experiments on the 

 physical constants of rocks contem- 



* The American Journal of Science, vol. 

 xlv., Jan., 1893. 



288 



