GROVE KARL GILBERT 



AN APPRECIATION 



By Joseph Barrell 



A LEADER in thought is known personally to relatively 

 few, a few hundreds perhaps, or a few thousands. He be- 

 comes known impersonally to a vastly greater number, living 

 in distant lands or in later generations. From each point to 

 which his influence reaches a somewhat different view of his 

 personality is obtained. In this series of appreciations of the 

 life and work of Grove Karl Gilbert the present contribution is 

 from a geologist of a younger generation who met him per- 

 sonally and in conversation but once, in 1908, who has corre- 

 sponded with him perhaps ten or a dozen times, but who has 

 found in his scientific methods and publications a constant 

 source of knowledge and inspiration. 



What are the features of Gilbert's personality and scientific 

 achievements as they stand out to one who thus is situated in- 

 termediate in distance between his limited circle of intimates 

 and contemporaries, on the one hand, and that indefinitely 

 larger circle, on the other hand, who have known and will 

 know him only through his works ? 



Gilbert's personality was one which could not fail to impress 

 itself, even at a first meeting; tall, blue-eyed, reddish-brown 

 hair, and of great bodily vigor while still in his prime, his phys- 

 ical impressiveness matched his mental qualities. There were 

 many notable features in his character: his kindliness and in- 

 terest in the work of younger men, his judicial quality and 

 clarity of thought, his transparent honesty, his lack of dogma- 

 tism, his readiness to review and revise if need be his own 

 conclusions ; these were outstanding characteristics, yet, as his 

 contemporary. Professor Chamberlin, has written of him, "It 

 is doubtful whether the products of any other geologist of our 

 day will escape revision at the hands of future research to a 

 degree equal to the writings of Grove Karl Gilbert." 



Gilbert was by nature predestined to be a geologist. He 



