James Hall, LL. D. — Hovcy. 145 
A reminiscence by LeConte is interesting'. Hall spoke on 
the formation of mountains by sedimentation. His ideas were 
so utterly new to the geologists that there was no room for its 
lodgment in their minds. The audience of savants was be- 
wildered. Guyot whispered to LeConte. "Do you understand 
anything he is saying?" "Not a word," was the reply. ;\.nd 
vet the theorv then advanced has been since fully developed in- 
to what is known as "The American tlieory of mountain- mak- 
ing." 
Early attempts to promote science by associations of scien- 
tific men were experimental, and some of them short-lived. In 
1839 the geologists of the New York survey met in Albany, 
Hall being chairman, to discuss what was organized in •1840, 
as the Association of American (Geologists, which held its first 
meeting that year in Philadelphia. Without tracing anew its 
familiar history, we may claim that in due time its administra- 
tive offspring was the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science. In the act of incorporation Hall's name 
stands fourth in the honored list of founders; and he was its 
tenth president, holding that office in 1856, at the Alban} 
meeting, when the famous Dudley Observatory was dedi- 
cated. Hon. Edward Everett giving the oration. Probably no 
person took a warmer interest than he in the annual meetings 
of the Association; and his ovatic^n at the lUiffalo meeting, in 
i8g6, when an entireday was. devoted to his praise, proves that 
his regard for his fellow-scientists was reciprocated. It is well 
Iniown that he looked forward with keen antici]^ation to the 
Boston jubilee, in i8q8, he being, with one exception, the sole 
survivor of the eighteen who formed the Association of Amer- 
ican Geologists, and one of the six survivors of those who 
founded the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science. 
Professor Hall left Albany earl}- in last July, in his usual 
health, for a summer sojourn at the Echo Hill house, in the 
White mountains near pjethlehem, X. H., a locality where he 
had been in former years. Shortly after his arrival he had an 
attack of indigestion, which induced irregularity in the action 
of the heart. Pie rallied slowly and was advised by his physi- 
cian at Albany to remain where he was. The local ])hvsician, 
at Pethlehem, is understood to ha\'e warned him that his cou- 
