Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 47.djvu/711

Rh that the axis of the Green Mountain chain is older than lower Cambrian. The latest workers in this field accept this conclusion.

Perhaps the favorite subject of Prof. Hitchcock was the study of the "Drift" He began to study the ice-marks even before the discovery of the footprints, and soon found himself far beyond the comprehension of his literary and scientific associates. Neither the iceberg nor glacier theory was original with him; but no one up to the time of his death had published so much upon the subject. His views are developed in the treatise on Surface Geology published by the Smithsonian Institution in 1857. His general theory refers the phenomena to both icebergs and glaciers; and their setting forth was generically like the most recent deliverances of Sir William Dawson, who acknowledges the presence of glaciers upon the mountains from which the icebergs were derived that flooded the submerged valleys. His papers are of special interest concerning river terraces, local glaciers in western New England, trains of bowlders, and frozen deposits of drift gravel. It is an interesting fact that he argued against the admissibility of Agassiz's glacial theory because of the absence of a grand terminal moraine at the outer margin of the ice sheet. It was less than five years after his death that geologists began to appreciate the true significance of the backbone of Long Island—that it was part of a gigantic moraine more than a thousand miles long. It is easy to see where Hitchcock would have stood had these facts been known in his day. .

The first written suggestion in regard to the formation of the American Association of Geologists came from Prof. Hitchcock, and he was chosen its first president in 1840. This was the parent of the later organization known as the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was present at nearly every meeting of both organizations until the gap in the later history induced by the war.

As President of Amherst College he was called upon to exercise unwonted judgment. The institution had almost broken down because of heavy indebtedness. The historian of the college declares that the institution was saved from destruction by the skill and wisdom of President Hitchcock. As an instructor and guide no one was more loved and honored. The number of students doubled during his administration. It was while he was president that his Religion of Geology appeared, in which he expounded the applications of science to theology. Most of the positions there maintained are accepted by the advanced Christian thinkers of to-day. The work appeared before the advent of Darwinism, but its principle was discussed as creation by law. While not accepting any development hypothesis, Prof. Hitchcock took