JOHN CASPER BRANNER 
259 
fitted for certain electrical uses. Before getting back to" the 
United States he represented for a short time our Department of 
Agriculture in the first mentioned state. But his work in South 
America was not yet finished. In subsequent years he directed at 
different times no less than three scientific expeditions to Brazil. 
One of these, in 1899, was under the patronage of Alexander 
Agassiz. Another, in 1907, was financed by Dr. Richard A. F. 
Penrose. And a third, in 1911, was made under the auspices of 
the Brazilian Government. The last had for its immediate pur¬ 
pose the investigation of the geological and biological features of 
the sea-coast on either side of the mouth of the Amazon River, 
in order to determine the effects of the large volumes of fresh 
water brought into the ocean by this great stream, upon marine 
life. 
Besides his extensive geological experiences in Brazil Branner 
was engaged for two years on the Geological Survey of Pennsyl¬ 
vania, where he mapped the rocks and relief features of the 
Lackawana Valley. For a period of five years he served as State 
Geologist of Arkansas. A score of volumes attested his great 
activities in this direction. Some of these reports were model 
and comprehensive monographs of their kind. Associated with 
him on these investigations were R. A. F. Penrose, Arthur Wins¬ 
low, J. Francis Williams, Leon S. Griswold, R. Ellsworth Call, 
Thomas C. Hopkins, Gilbert D. Harris, and Frederick W. Sim¬ 
mons. His own results were mainly contained in a half dozen 
bulky volumes. 
Although so long and so widely given up to geological investi¬ 
gation much of Doctor Branner’s preeminently successful career 
was devoted to the teaching of geology. When yet on the Penn¬ 
sylvania Geological Survey, in 1885, he received appointment to 
the chair of geology in Indiana State University, which post he 
held for six years, when he was called to the faculty of the then 
newly founded Stanford University in California, where the 
remainder of his useful life was spent. During fifteen years of 
this period he acted as Vice-President of that institution; and 
succeeded Doctor David Starr Jordan as President, retiring under 
the age limit established as Emeritus in 1917. 
Concerning Doctor Branner’s association with Stanford Uni¬ 
versity, Chancellor Jordan feelingly writes: “My acquaintance 
