Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 65.djvu/383

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THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE.
379

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE.

THE LE CONTE MEMORIAL LODGE.

Joseph Le Conte died in the Yosemite Valley in 1901, and a memorial lodge has now been erected there in his honor by the Sierra Club. As the illustrations show the lodge is built in a manner appropriate to its beautiful surroundings. The stonework is of granite obtained in the vicinity with the weathered surface exposed, and the interior roof beams are uncovered. The main reading room is 36 x 25 feet in size. The lodge is overshadowed by the great cliffs of Glacier Point; there is a fine grove of trees in the rear, and the entrance commands a magnificent view. The structure was designed by Mr. John White and erected at a cost of about $5,000, subscribed by Le Conte s students, colleagues and friends, and members of the Sierra Club.

The Le Conte Memorial Lodge. Photographed by Hallett-Taylor Co.

It is most appropriate that there should be erected to Le Conte a memorial of this character, in this region that he loved so well and where he died, not a mere monument, but a building useful in promoting the out-of-door interests and scientific pursuits, which in his life time he greatly forwarded.

There has recently been published by the Appletons an autobiography of Le Conte which, though written only as a manuscript for his family, presents a pleasing account of an interesting and lovable man, who held an important place in the scientific life of the country for more than fifty years. Joseph Le Conte was born on a Georgia plantation in 1823. His father was a scientific