306 
OBITUARY NOTICES. 
In 1888, at Powell’s instance, the Geological Survey was 
instructed to classify the lands of the public domain, and 
especially to set apart those which might be susceptible of 
irrigation. The interference with private interests which 
this led to aroused a storm of opposition, which reacted on 
the Survey and led to the repeal of the law. As soon as he 
felt satisfied of the appointment of a worthy successor— 
weary of too onerous responsibilities and worn with the pain 
in his amputated arm, which constantly troubled him—he 
relinquished the directorship of the Survey. A third sur¬ 
gical operation relieved him considerably. He continued 
in the directorship of the Bureau of Ethnology, deputing the 
routine of administration to an assistant, and devoted much 
of his time to the elaboration of a system of philosophy in 
which he had begun to take great interest. His health, al¬ 
ready broken by incessant calls upon his strength, gradually 
declined until his death, which occurred September 23,1902. 
His remains were interred at Arlington Cemetery among 
other heroes of the Civil War, with the touching ritual of the 
Grand Army of veterans read by surviving comrades. His 
widow and a daughter survive him. 
The usual honors due to distinction were not withheld 
from Powell in his lifetime. Honorary degrees and mem¬ 
bership in scientific societies, foreign and domestic, were 
numerous. He was elected a member of the Philosophical 
Society of Washington in 1874 and its President in 1883 
and a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 
1880. He was a founder of the Cosmos Club and its Presi¬ 
dent during 1878 and 1881. He was President of the Amer¬ 
ican Association for the Advancement of Science in 1888. 
He stimulated the formation of several of the scientific soci¬ 
eties of Washington and was energetic in developing the 
functions and promoting the growth of the Cosmos Club 
and the Washington Academy of Sciences. In short, he 
was prominent in all the scientific activity of the Capital and 
did much to determine the lines on wdiich it has developed. 
In the brief abstract of a crowded life, which is all tha* 
