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Sierra Club Bulletin 



ment; for having once made his statement, he regarded repe- 

 tition unnecessary and he was strongly disincHned to engage in 

 controversy. 



He was unconventional, impartial, industrious, averse to ex- 

 aggeration, and possessed of exceptional evenness and serenity 

 of temper. He was a man of few words, just and kindly in 

 criticism, avoiding provocation both in the giving and in the 

 taking, in all things calm and imperturbable. 



As a lecturer he was clear, precise, and naturally inclined 

 toward the technical. This he himself realized, and he used to 

 enjoy telling about his first public talk, which was on the geo- 

 logical subject ''Erosion." He thought he had adapted it to 

 the needs of a non-technical audience, and was chagrined to 

 find that it went entirely over their heads. So on the first op- 

 portunity he repeated it, under the title ''Mud," and this time 

 succeeded in awakening enthusiastic interest. 



While able to devote the greater part of the most active pe- 

 riod of his life to field-work and the study of problems arising 

 therefrom, his work nevertheless suffered a serious interrup- 

 tion due to the assumption of administrative labors, to which, 

 from a sense of duty and much against his inclination, he gave 

 t his principal energies for eight long years (1884-1892).* Re- 

 ferring to one of his unfinished investigations, he said: "It is 

 hardly necessary for me to assure you that my personal regret 

 in abandoning this research at its present stage is very great."t 

 But the depth of the sacrifice necessary in giving up research 

 work, to a man of his keenness of intellect, clearness of vision, 

 and logic of deduction, equipped by nature, inclination, and 

 training for the solution of difficult problems, may be more 

 easily imagined than expressed. The extent of the resulting 

 loss to science can only be conjectured. 



It is not for me to speak of his resourcefulness, versatility, 

 and diverse accomplishments, of his skill in making sketches, 

 photographs, and diagrams for the better illustration of the 

 subject in hand, of his quick grasp of the meaning of natural 

 phenomena, of his vigor and enthusiasm in the field, or of his 



*It was the distaste for ofifice-work and dread of abandoning research work that 

 later led him to decline the offer of the high position of Director of the Survey. 



t Inculcation of Scientific Method by Example. Am. Journ. Set., 3d Ser., Vol. 

 XXXI, pp. 284-299, 1886. 



