GROVE KARL GILBERT 



By E. C. Andrews, of Sydney, N. S. Wales 

 HE note presented herewith for the readers of the Sierra 



JL Club Bulletin is written by one who was associated in- 

 timately with Dr. Gilbert during a period of two months only, 

 but who was associated with him for years by means of corre- 

 spondence dealing with the subjects of erosion by means of 

 currents, waves, rivers, glaciers, and wind. The note deals in 

 the first place with Gilbert the scientist and in the second place 

 with Gilbert the man. 



It is probable in the highest degree that Dr. Gilbert will be 

 placed among the world's greatest geologists and geographers 

 by future workers, if indeed he is not placed there already by 

 geologists. His great success lay in his intimate communion 

 with Nature coupled with his wonderful powers both of ob- 

 servation and reflection. His geological and geographical works 

 show him as one who was continually making sound observa- 

 tions of natural phenomena, making inferences or deductions 

 therefrom, and then checking these inferences by reference to 

 Nature again. In this way he advanced through inference and 

 hypothesis toward Truth., 



His methods were much like those of Darwin, the patient 

 yet brilliant observer, the one who sought facts rather than 

 sensational novelties. His quest was Truth first and Truth last. 

 Fame and position counted little with him compared with ex- 

 actness of observation and deduction. There were twenty- 

 four hours in the day only. He chose God before Mammon. 



John Muir was another grand student of Nature. In his 

 case, however, the reflective faculty was not so evident as in 

 the case of Gilbert; the temperament was more sentimental, 

 perhaps more spiritual, the imagination was more poetical, less 

 disciplined than Gilbert's. Each, however, was a master ; each 

 was a lover of Nature; each found the truth in his own way; 

 the one felt the unity of Nature; the other sought to co-ordi- 

 nate natural phenom.ena. 



