THE 
AMERICAN GEOLOGIST. 
Vol. XV. FEBRUARY, 1895. No. 2. 
GEORGE HUNTINGTON WILLIAMS. 
TS50-1804. 
[Portrait.] 
Itiniuc Hclolcst'L'iiU'S milii mori sic vidciilur, ut cum aquai' mult il iidiin' 
tlummue vis uijprimilur. — Cato. 
The student of organic nature, busied with the various forms 
under which life has manifested itself, frequently meets with 
phases of individual growth, among the living or in the earth's 
catacombs, which show that one creature may pass through 
its developmental changes more rapidl}^ than its fellows, span- 
ning structural cliasms, leaping vales and scaling hights which 
others of its race must plod slowly and traverse with weary 
effort. In intellectual gi'owth is the faitliful parallel of 
such physical acceleration of developnunit which the (i reeks 
idealized in their concept of Athene, full-grown andaccoutered 
at her marvelous birth; equipped for war, not robed for 
peace. 
The geniuses of science, "standing on the mountain-top and 
catching the first rays of the rising sun," pregnant with new 
views of nature, have realized tliat the path to success must 
be hewn out with labor denuvnding the utnu)st of their equip- 
ment. Experience has written nothing nutre iiulelible than 
that for the loiterer, the dreamer, the man (»F leisure there is 
'no niche in science. 
In the death of professor Williams, who was a man of gen- 
ius, of intellectual prowess and an unremitting laborer, it is 
difficult to fully apprehend the loss which has fallen to geo- 
