Grove Karl Gilbert 



63 



study of the action and transporting power of streams gener- 

 ally, with specific applications to the question of damage done 

 by hydraulic sluicing in California. 



His works will live long after him, because, like Darwin, he 

 aimed at the truth and nothing but the truth, and was not to be 

 drawn aside by a premature announcement of something novel 

 and startling. Every new idea was mercilessly checked by later 

 observation and forced to agree with its context. 



His love and admiration for Darwin, Huxley, Tyndall, Hut- 

 ton, Playfair, Faraday, and other great EngHshmen, and his 

 avowed admiration of the charming style of English writing 

 and clearness of thought exemplified in the works of these mas- 

 ters illustrates the type of man here considered. 



As a boy Gilbert v/as not at all robust, and, according to his 

 statement to the writer, he scarcely, if ever indeed, attended 

 school on that account. His father, desirous of his mental de- 

 velopment, gave him the following problem to solve : ''A loaf is 

 in the form of a hemisphere, and the crust is of uniform thick- 

 ness, the volume of the crust being equal to that of the crumb. 

 What are the relative thicknesses of the crust and the crumb?" 

 The boy solved the problem unaided, and his father forecast 

 that he might be of use in the world after all ! 



Dr. Gilbert was a big-hearted man, and he made a hobby of 

 assisting lads of intellectual promise to receive a good educa- 

 tion. He was always on the , look-out, however, for signs of 

 strength or weakness of character in such students, in his 

 friends and acquaintance. Thus one day, when an acquaintance 

 made a tremendous and resonant sneeze in his company, he ex- 

 claimed : ''Bravo ! I have waited long to understand whether 

 he really had elements of greatness in him. He has sneezed 

 greatly. I am satisfied. He will do something of great use 

 yet!" 



He was extremely sensitive despite his grandeur of charac- 

 ter. He hated to be saluted familiarly as ''Doc" or even as 

 "Doctor." At Shaver, the lumber camp beyond Fresno, our 

 party stayed for two days awaiting the mule-teams from Yo- 

 semite and Calaveras way. Gilbert was leader. An oily-faced 

 individual showed us our rooms in a shack, and then said, "I'll 

 thank you. Doc, for a half for the bed !" The half was paid. 



