512 PROCEEDINGS OF TH E WASHINGTON MEETING

Modes of evolution in fossil shells. Trans. N. F. Acad. Sci., vol. 8, 1889, pp. 114, 115.

Carboniferous Cephalopods. Texas Qeol. Survey, Second Ann. Sept., 1891, pp. 329- 356.

Remarks on the Pinnidse. Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 25, 1892, pp. 335-346. Jura and Trias at Taylorsville, California. Bull. Oeol. Soc. Amer., vol. 3, 1892, pp.

395-412.Carboniferous Cephalopods. Second paper. Texas Geol. Survey, Fourth Ann. Rept.,

1893, p p . 379-474.The fauna of Tucumcari. Amer. Geologist, vol. 11, 1894, p. 281 (correspondence). Jura and Trias in the western states. Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., vol. 5,1894, pp. 395-

434.Phylogeny of an acquired characteristic. Proc. Am. Phil. Soc., vol. 32, 1894, pp.

349-647, plates 1-14.Remarks on the genus Nanno Clarke. Amer. Geologist, vol. 16, 1895, pp. 1-12,

plate 1. ,Lost characteristics. Amer. Naturalist, vol. 30,1896, pp. 9-17.Report on the Mesozoic fossils (Alaska). U. S. Geol. Survey, Seventeenth Ann. Rept.,

part 1, 1896, pp. 907, 908.Terminology proposed for description of the shell in Pelecypoda. Abstract. Proc.

Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sci., vol. 44, 1896, pp. 145-148.Cycle in the life of the individual (Ontogeny) and in the evolution of its own

group (Phylogeny). Science, vol. 5, 1897, pp. 161-171; Proc. Amer. Acad., vol. 32, 1897, p p . 209-224.

Some governing factors usually neglected in biological investigations. M. B. L.Lectures, 1899, pp. 127-156.

Evolution and navigation of Hawaiian land shells. Abstract. Proc. Amer. Assoc.Adv. Sci., vol. 47, pp. 357-358.

A new classification of fossil Cephalopods. Abstract. Proc. Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sci., vol. 47, pp. 363-365.

In the absence of the author, the following memoir was read by J. S. D iller:

MEMOIR OF JAMES E. MILLS*

BY J . C. BRANNER

James Ellison Mills, son of Doctor Preserved Brayton and Jane Lunt Mills, was born in Bangor, Maine, February 13, 1834, and died at San Fernando, Estado de Durango, Mexico, Ju ly 25,1901. The boyhood of Mr Mills was spent at home, in the public schools and in the woods with crews of lumbermen working for his father. He prepared to enter Harvard College at the age of seventeen, bu t his father desired that he should first learn what he could of his country by traveling, and accord-

♦ For th e da ta of th is notice I am indeb ted chiefly to Mr M ills’ su rv iv ing b ro ther, H iram M ills, of Lowell, M assachusetts.

BULL. GEOL. SOC. AM. VOL. 14, 1902, PL. 65

MEMOIR OF JAMES E. MILLS 5 1 3

ingly in 1851 he went through lower Canada and the northern line of states to Minnesota, thence down through the states bordering on the Mississippi river to Saint Louis, across the middle states to Washington, and back to Maine, making more than 1,000 miles of the journey on foot and on horseback. In Minnesota he met and traveled with Doctor Carl Scherzer, of Vienna. By his advice he gave up the plan of entering Harvard College, but instead entered the Lawrence Scientific School in 1852. He spent part of his time under Louis Agassiz, both as student and as assistant, and, graduated in 1857 summa cum, laude. He continued as assistant to Professor Agassiz at Harvard until 1858, when he felt it his duty to turn his whole attention to the ministry. He accordingly began preaching in Brooklyn, New York, and in 1860 was ordained as a minister of the New Jerusalem church (Swedenborgian) and entered upon his duties of pastor of the society in Brooklyn, where he continued three years. His health failing, he gave up sedentary life and entered again on geological work. For two or three years he was engaged in exploring and locating coal beds on cape Breton and in Cumberland county, Nova Scotia. Until 1870 he had an office as consulting geologist in New York, and examined and reported on mining properties, among them iron de­posits in Alabama, coal deposits in West Virginia, and oil deposits in western Pennsylvania. In 1868 he examined lead mines in Missouri and did geological work on the survey of the upper Mississippi, then being carried on by the government under General G. K. Warren. In 1869 he was mining manganese in Virginia. In 1869,1870, and 1871 he was superintendent of Bradys Bend iron works, in western Pennsylva- via, and successfully located several oil wells in new territory. In 1871 and 1872 he was at the Vulcan iron works, in charge of the manufacture of steel rails, into which industry he introduced im portant improve­ments. From 1872 to 1879 he made Saint Louis, Missouri, his home. In 1873 he was vice-president of the Big Muddy Iron Company of Saint Louis. In 1877 he examined and reported on the mine La Motte and other lead properties in Missouri. In 1878 he examined and reported on gold mines in Rio Grande do Sul and in Minas Geraes, Brazil, South America. In 1879-’80 he was superintendent of the Sao Cyriaco Gold Mining Company in the diamond district of Minas Geraes, Brazil, but returned to this country in 1880. Since 1880 he has been consulting geologist and adviser of the capitalists interested in the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company, for whom he has examined and reported on several properties in the west and in Mexico. In 1880 he went to Cali­fornia to examine certain gold placer deposits, and while pursuing his work he devised a new method of sinking steel shafts to depths of 200 feet or more without removing the water until bed rock was reached,

5 1 4 PROCEEDINGS OP TH E WASHINGTON MEETING

and thus preventing surface water from following down the outside of the shaft. In connection with this work he began his study of the geology of the Sierra Nevada. This survey was begun for those who had employed him, b u t he continued it for m any years at his own ex­pense. In 1895 he went to Mexico, and spent the last six years of his life in developing a mining property for the San Fernando Mining Company at San Fernando, Estado de Durango, where he died on Ju ly 25, 1901.

In 1861 he m arried Miss Mary Collier, of Brooklyn, New Y ork; of their five children four survive him. After separation from his first wife he married, in 1894, Miss Jane Dearborn, of Orange, New Jersey, who was his constant and helpful companion during the last years of his life.

This is a bare outline of the life of our friend and fellow-member. At the end of this notice is given a list of his published papers on geological subjects. But neither this brief outline nor the list of papers affords a just estimate of the personal influence of Mr Mills on the men who knew him well ; for that influence was moral rather than scientific.

In 1879-’80 I was intim ately associated With Mr Mills. He was then the superintendent of the Sâo Cyriaco Gold Mining company of Boston, with property on Rio do Peixe, near Serro, in the diamond regions of Brazil, and I was his assistant. In that capacity I had direct supervision of the engineering work under his charge and had also to act as his in ­terpreter. Owing to his various relations with Brazilians and the neces­sity of communicating with them in the Portuguese language and through me, I had unusual opportunities for knowing his methods, his motives, and his character. Such relations were less enlightening in his case, however, than they would have been with many men, for Mr Mills was not a man who had anything in his character to cover up. W hat he was in public he was in private —an upright man in every sense.

One great service Mr Mills did in Brazil was, in the face of the customs of generations, to set up and maintain successfully a standard of honor­able dealing between employer and employé. At the time of our resi­dence in the diamond regions slavery was still in existence in Brazil, and he was frequently and forcibly reminded that the company’s work could be done only by the use of slave labor. I t was not expected that the company should own slaves, but that it would rent them of their Bra­zilian owners. Against the use of slave labor in any form Mr Mills set his face from the outset, though he fully realized that it would be very difficult to find enough free workmen. He was convinced, however, that the chief reason free labor was so difficult to find and more difficult to hold was because it was not well or prom ptly paid. His idea was to convince the employés that their wages would be paid promptly once a

MEMOIR OF JAMES E. MILLS 515

week, and he believed that there would soon be no difficulty in finding all the labor he required ; and this proved to be the case. The demands he placed on these men were more strict than they had ever been accus­tomed to, bu t they met these demands as soon as they realized that they were to be treated justly. He was scrupulously honest in dealing with his men ; he always paid them promptly and never made or permitted any claims on their wage3 through the company’s office.

Later, in Mexico, he met with many similar difficulties and with much opposition among all classes, bu t it is a great pleasure to know, and it is an honor to the profession, that he followed the same policy and met with the same success. One can hardly understand the importance and meaning of this policy unless he has had experience in dealing with people who live and die, generation after generation, under a system of oppression by debt, by social superiors, and by the pride of place and office.

His contributions to geological science are small. I never look at the list a t the end of this paper without a sense of disappointment, for I know th a t he gathered and had at his command a vast am ount of useful information upon geologic subjects. The bulk of his work, however, was done for private parties, and he always fully realized tha t informa­tion gained in this way was the property of his employers. Moreover, he never could have brought himself to publish anything for the sake of parading his information ; it could only have been for the purpose of giving others the benefit of what he knew. To him geology was merely the expression of the laws of God, and was therefore always interesting, always worthy of the effort required to understand it, and it was for all mankind. He always acted as though he felt that what he had and what he knew (outside of what he controlled as an employé) was held in trust for the good—not of himself alone, but for the good of humanity.

On one occasion when I asked for the use of some of his books, he boxed them up and sent them to me with the request that after I had used them I should pass them on to whoever might require them.

When in 189(5 Doctor Penrose undertook the study of the manganese regions of North America he found Mr Mills to be one of the few geol­ogists of this country who at that time had and readily imparted valu­able information regarding the manganese deposits of the United States. In the preface to his “ Modern American Methods of Copper Smelting,” Doctor E. D. Peters acknowledges “ the valuable assistance of Mr J. E. Mills in connection with the geology of the Butte mining district.” Mention is made of these instances as showing how free and helpful Mr Mills was with his knowledge, and even with his property.

5 1 6 PROCEEDINGS OP TH E WASHINGTON M EETING

His greatest piece of geologic work—that on the geology of the Sierra Nevada—has not yet been published. Begun about 1880 and continued up to the time of his death, it illustrates well his views of how a man of science should serve mankind. After some tim e spent in studying the geology of the Sierra Nevada at various points, he became convinced that the detailed study of a section across the m ountains and embracing its type formations ought to solve at once most of its geologic problems. Such a piece of work, however, no business enterprise would think of undertaking, for it could not be counted upon to yield financial results, and no scientific institution felt able to undertake it. H e therefore de­termined to do the work unaided, and all the time and money he could spare from other duties were thenceforth devoted to this investigation. Topographers and field assistants were employed out of his private funds, and an area of 160 square miles was m apped in great detail. The field notes were plotted on a scale of 1 to 2,400 and afterwards re­duced to 1 to 12,000. In addition to this, an area of about 800 square miles was mapped on a mile to the inch scale. I t should be remembered that this area lies across the high Sierras, chiefly in a forest-covered region that is very thinly populated and where field work is retarded by late and early snows.

A part of Mr Mills’ results, obtained in his study of the sierras, are published in volume 3 of the Bulletin of this Society; bu t the bulk of them was not yet in shape for publication when he died. H e was look­ing forward with pleasant anticipations to spending the last years of his life in making this piece of work his greatest contribution to geologic knowledge.*

Mr Mills was an inspiring teacher, and he had the art, by the use of simple and effective illustrations, of making things easy and at the same time impressive. He was a warm and tolerant friend, b u t he was like­wise a warm and uncompromising enemy. As a geologist, he endeav­ored to be governed always by a judicial mind ; but when he believed a thing he usually believed it very vigorously, and this trait of character sometimes led him into error and afterward causedl him deep regrets. When he found himself in the wrong, however, he made haste to set himself right. He was a man of broad sympathies and was deeply interested in all kinds of social and economic questions.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Manganese deposits in Virginia. Artier, Chemist, vol. 2, no. 2, August, 1871, pp.49-51. New York.

* Mr W illiam W atson, of Q uincy, C alifornia, has been M r M ills1 fa ith fu l a ss is tan t in all th is w ork in th e S ie rra Nevada.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OP JAMES E. MILLS 517

Silo Cyriaco gold mines, province of Minas Geraes, Brazil. (A report made to Messrs Riedel, Rader & Co., dated Rio de Janeiro, December 18, 1875, 8vo, 20 pp., 2 maps, and illustrations.) Appendix A, pp. 14-18, is upon geological details (n. d. or loc.).

Geological report on the mine La Motte «state, the property of Rowland Hazard, situated in Saint François and Madison counties, Missouri. New York, 1877 (51 pp. and maps).

As minas de Curo de S. Cyriaco na provincia de Minas Geraes. Revista Industrial, Junho de 1878, vol. 2, pp. 171-173. New York, 1878. (Portuguese translation of the preceding.)

A new method of shaft sinking through water bearing loose materials. Tram.Amer. Inst. Mining Engineers, vol. 13, May, 1884, pp. 216-231.

Quaternary deposits and quaternary or recent elevation of regions and mountains in Brazil, with deductions as to the origin of loess from its observed condi­tions there. Amer. Geologist, vol. 3, 1889, pp. 345-361 ; also separate.

Stratigraphy and succession of the rocks of the Sierra Nevada of California. Bull.Geol. Soc. Am., vol. 3, 1891, pp. 413-444.

Notes upon the surface geology of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Edited by J. C.Branner. Amer. Geologist, vol. 29, February, 1902, pp. 126-127.

Unpublished : The geology of the Sierra Nevada as exhibited in a detailed section through Plumas county, California. Assisted by William Watson. The map accompanying this paper covers 160 square miles, on a scale of 1 to 12,000, and other maps cover an area of 800 square miles, on a mile to the inch scale.

Following the memoirs the Committee on Entertainment, through Mr George H. Eldridge, chairman, made announcements concerning the dinner and other events.

The President declared the scientific program in order, and the Secre­tary stated that the Council had passed the following resolution :

“ Resolved, That the Council of the Geological Society of America invites the members of Section E, American Association for the Advancement of Science, to present their papers now on the Section E program before the Geological Society : Provided, That such papers as are accepted for reading by the Council of the Geo­logical Society be regarded as Geological Society papers.”

The first paper presented was the following :

THE FIRST EPARCBEAN FORMATION

BY H . M. AMI

The paper was discussed by C. R. Van Hise, Bailey Willis, A. R. Lane,A. W. Grabau, the author, and the President. A short abstract is pub­lished in Science, volume xvii, page 290.