Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 52.djvu/569

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SKETCH OF CHARLES D. WALCOTT.
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was enabled to restore and delineate all the more important organs, and thus make a satisfactory determination of the biological rank and position of the Trilobita.

In stratigraphical paleontology Mr. Walcott has thoroughly combined field studies of the strata with laboratory work on fossils. His most important local work has been on the so-called Grand Cañon section of Utah and Arizona, which exhibits an unusually complete rock series from Archæan to Tertiary, in the Eureka mining district of Nevada, and in the Taconic region of New York, Vermont, and Massachusetts. His work on the Cambrian formations of North America covered a wide geographical range, as already mentioned, and led to the systematic grouping of the Cambrian rocks in three chronological divisions, each characterized by a distinctive fauna. In 1888 he visited Wales for the purpose of making a personal study of the type district of the Cambrian system—the district rendered classic by the original labors of Sedgwick and the subsequent researches of Hicks.

Mr. Walcott's work of scientific administration began in 1891, when he was given supervision of all the paleontological work of the Geological Survey, and has been progressively enlarged to the present time. When called to the directorship of the survey in 1894, he took charge of a body of scientific work already well organized, and continued a policy of administration which for several years he had been instrumental in shaping. He had no important changes to institute which had not been contemplated by his predecessor in office, and his ability to develop and strengthen the organization depended largely on the confidence he was able to inspire in those members of the legislative branch of the Government who determine the amount and general purpose of appropriations. Between 1879 and 1894, while the survey was under the direction of Mr. Clarence King and Major J. W. Powell, the amount assigned by Congress to its work had been gradually enlarged from $106,000 to $459,640, and the great body of geological work thus rendered possible had so stimulated State and individual activity as to give American geology a new and unprecedented status. Not only did the publications of the survey constitute a library in themselves, but the valuable material which became available for unofficial publication led to the institution of two journals devoted wholly to geology, and the organization of a geological society publishing annually a large volume of Transactions. It was therefore a matter of great importance, alike to the science of geology and to the great economic interests involved in its development, that the man chosen to succeed Major Powell should command the respect and confidence of the people and their representatives, so that the national work