6 The American Geologist. Jaunary, 1900 
straighten when a boy; it was considered "girHsh" in those 
days to have curly hair. The hair, as well as a nervous, 
active temperament, he inherited from his mother, who was 
partly of Scottish descent. On the paternal side of his house, 
Mr. Green had Italian blood in his veins. This mixture of 
nationalities is common in the genealogies of commercial 
people. ^ 
In his foreign home he was happy in the devotedness of 
a wife and loving daughter and in the kindness of many per- 
-sonal friends, some of whom w'ere fellow workers in geology. 
.\s man of busin&ss and minister of state, he had earned the 
respect of both natives and foreigners in Hawaii. His last 
and only illness he bore patiently. He was no doubt troubled 
with a desire natural to authors to live long enough to see 
the value of his scientific labours acknowledged. His faith 
in his geological theory was intense. He may have chafed at 
the supercilious neglecc of his book by English writers, but 
his last moments were cheered by a glow of recognition from 
French and Relgian men of science. 
Mr. Green's latest literary effort was a courteous notice 
of J. D. Dana's most recent contribution to geological science, 
a work in which some of Green's statements had been re- 
ferred to. Flis reply was reprinted in 1890 in pamphlet form 
and must have been dictated when he was almost physically 
incapable of holding a pen. His mind to nearly the hour of 
his death remained brieht and active. 
The memory of William Low'thian Green will be honored 
henceforth because of his success in showing why the earth 
has assumed its present relief. Our most eminent authors 
have heretofore failed to discover the principle regulating the 
contraction of the earth, almost to the point of denying the 
existence of any rational element in the development. The oro- 
graphic features have been clearly made out, the stability 
of continents and ocean beds affirmed, two causes of topo- 
graphic trends nearly at right angles to each other have been 
detected: but how do these facts match? It has not been be- 
cause no one has claimed the discovery; for Elie de Beau- 
mont enunciated many approved principles. Geologists saw 
that his network of pentagons, as well as the dodecahedral 
