GILBERT MEETING 
59 
was, indeed, a brilliant one. It fitted to a nicety the Powellian 
policy of geological saisissement. In after years, in the heyday 
of the Powell regime in Washington I remember well how proud 
the old Major was of the generalization that crustal shortening 
was mainly accomplished by fracturing rather than through flex¬ 
ing as had always been generally regarded. Supreme complacency 
with which he always pointed to the fault-block theory served only 
to obscure the fatal incongruity that the principle should be 
restricted to so inconsequental a portion of the earth’s surface. 
Like Goethe’s dazzling portrayal of the origin of the skull from 
distorted proximal vertebrae it was a poet’s flight of the fancy. 
Past criticism on some of his brilliant concepts evidently dis¬ 
concerted him not a little, and even shook somewhat his faith 
in the correctness of his early conclusions. When he wrote his 
sumptuous monographs on Great Basin topics there was no such 
thing as a special desert geology, and geographic cycle in land 
sculpture was not yet born, and deflation under the stimulus of 
aridity was not yet a recognized erosional activity. These were 
things which seemed to disturb his peace of mind; and he plainly 
showed that he had not explained all. It was evident that in the 
light of more recent advances in geological knowledge that some 
of his results would have to be recast somewhat. There was full 
realization of quiet passage of early radical to the late conserva¬ 
tive, even as Jerome in painting had brought home to him at the 
end of only twenty years. 
Two features in particular appeared to me remarkable. These 
were his last word on laccoliths and in isostasy. Mention of the 
possible play of tectonic stress in the formation of laccolithic 
intrusions, as has so recently been proposed for the Sierra del 
Oro of New Mexico, illicited the astonishing admission that this 
had lately occurred to him in regard to the Henry Mountains. 
This thought had awakened a keen desire to revisit that group 
and look for evidence along lines parallel to the great Water 
Pocket flexure. When the next morning he took breakfast with 
me at the hotel he had already formulated a plan whereby Lawson, 
Willis, Branner, and myself, and perhaps two or three others, 
might go with him at first convenient opportunity to southeastern 
Utah and test a new working hypothesis in the field. Too far 
advanced then was the season for such a trip and the next year 
he removed to Michigan never to return. 
