Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 9.djvu/516

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492
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

for hundreds of miles are lined with the ruined stone houses and towns of an extinct race. Dr. Newberry's report of this expedition was published recently.

Upon the outbreak of the war, Dr. Newberry was elected a member of the Sanitary Commission, and in September, 1861, he was chosen secretary of its Western department. He had supervision of the affairs of the Commission in the Mississippi Valley, with headquarters at first in Cleveland, then in Louisville. In this position he displayed executive abilities of a high order. Branches of the Commission were, through his efforts, established in the chief cities of the West, and measures taken for the permanent and effective care of the sick and wounded.

In 1866 he was appointed Professor of Geology in the School of Mines of Columbia College, New York, which position he still holds. In 1869 he received from Governor Hayes the appointment as State Geologist of Ohio, and was commissioned to make a geological survey of that State. The work was carried on by Dr. Newberry and his assistants with extraordinary vigor, and was completed at the close of the year 1874.

The report of this survey is now in process of publication. Two "Reports of Progress," and four volumes of the "Final Report," illustrated with a large number of finely-executed maps and plates, have already appeared. Four volumes more, and a geological map of the State, still remain to be published. This work, though executed with unexampled rapidity, has not been carelessly done. The record already made is proof of its thoroughness, and shows that it will compare favorably with any similar survey made in this country or elsewhere; indeed, it is in the highest degree creditable to the State of Ohio, and to the geologist in charge.

Prof. Newberry's eminence as a scientific man is unquestioned. As a geologist and paleontologist he ranks among the foremost of the time. His contributions to the literature of these branches of science have been numerous and valuable, being chiefly in the departments of general geology, fossil plants, and fossil fishes. He is a member of most of our American scientific associations, and of many similar European bodies; he was one of the original corporators of the National Academy of Sciences, has been President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and is at the present time President of the New York Academy of Sciences (formerly Lyceum of Natural History).