OBITUARY NOTICES. 
495 
In 1884 he entered the service of the Geological Survey. 
He had always wished to see a really accurate map of the 
State of Massachusetts, in which he had spent so much of 
his life upon patchwork. It is not too much to say that the 
inception and execution of the work now approaching com¬ 
pletion was largely due to his persistent efforts. 
He was employed upon it from the time of his entering 
the Geological Survey, in 1884, until his death, in April last. 
His widow writes that “ he was devoted to his work, putting 
his whole soul into it, and giving himself up to it until the 
last hour of his life. The book from which he was comput¬ 
ing lay open before him when he could no longer see it. He 
was an earnest seeker after the truth ; an honest, sincere, and 
upright man.” 
In the report of the Commissioners of the Massachusetts 
State Topographical Survey for 1888, the commissioners, 
Messrs. Walker, Whiting, and Shaler, say of him: 
“ Mr. Walling has been identified with the State survey 
from its inception to the time of his death; in fact, it was 
mainly due to his personal efforts that the survey was in¬ 
augurated. He was at the time a member of the Geological 
Survey, which he finally left for the exclusive service of the 
Commonwealth. His personal knowledge of the geography 
of the State and his long experience in map-making gave 
him a special fitness for the work of the new survey. 
“Although always a sufferer from grave bodily ills, Mr. 
Walling, by dint of patience and a masterful will, succeeded 
in accomplishing a remarkable body of work. To him more 
than to any one else is due the appreciation of good maps 
which is now bearing fruit in the National Survey.” 
Mr. Walling was married at Providence, in 1847, to Miss 
Maria Fowler Wheeler, who survives him, as do two daugh¬ 
ters. Two sons died—one in infancy; the other, a fine, prom¬ 
ising youth, died in 1867, while in his sophomore year at 
Yale College. His father never entirely recovered from this 
severe blow, but his “ masterful will ” kept him up to the 
