60 
GILBERT MEETING 
Especially impressive was the discussion on isostatic compensa¬ 
tion, as Dutton, Powell, and himself had conceived it. On him 
was already beginning to dawn the fact that the fatal objection 
to the Survey’s notion of Basin Range structure was a perfect 
independence of relief and tectonics. This factor had been over¬ 
looked in the early considerations. It now menaced the entire 
explanation. Days afterwards this discussion revived in me and 
awakened the idea that the main difficulty had been that the geo¬ 
logical datum of isostasy was itself mobile. 
That last meeting, as it proved to be, with Gilbert was indelibly 
impressed upon memory. Well weighted down with his four 
score years his movements were still alert, his eyes were still 
piercing, and his conversation still scintillated as of yore — a 
noble form spared to us as a reminder that there were real giants 
in those days. 
Recurrence of that happy meeting was not to be. Winter bbsts 
brought word of his gentle passing. Although of another gener¬ 
ation his magnetic fervor of the reformer, the polished fluency 
of his speech, and the trenchant aptness of illustration betokened 
the well rounded man, with broad culture, catholicity of sympa¬ 
thies, and generous instincts. Even at his age a few months later 
one might truly exclaim in the words of the venerable Cato: 
Itaque adolescentes mihi mori sic videntur, ut cum aquce multi- 
tudine dammoc vis apprimitur. 
