Biographical Notice 



both State and Federal, which have 

 been made for the study of economic 

 geology. But these favorable con- 

 ditions would have amounted to noth- 

 ing without the men competent to 

 take advantage of them, and the wise 

 provision made for such investiga- 

 tions by the first Director of the 

 U. S. Geological Survey. 



King's important contributions to 

 scientific literature, apart from his 

 work on public surveys, were very 

 few. Probably the most important 

 were his address at the Sheffield Sci- 

 entific School, in June, 1877, on " Ca- 

 tastrophism and the Evolution of 

 Environment," and his paper on " The 

 Age of the Earth," published Jan- 

 uary, 1893, in the American J otirnal 

 of Science. 



I know that King- considered the 

 praise of this work by Lord Kelvin 

 as one of the greatest honors ever 

 bestowed upon him. 

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