Of late years when he might have relaxed his labours, he turned his attention to the field of psychology and philosophy, working till his malady, sclerosis of the arteries, produced his last illness. The result was two treatises in this line. Truth and Error, published in 1899, and “treating of matter, motion, and consciousness as related to the external universe or the field of fact,” as Gilbert describes it, and Good and Evil, running as a series of essays in the American Anthropologist, treating of the same factors as related to humanity or to welfare. A third volume was planned to deal with the emotions, and he had also woven these ideas into a series of poems, of which only one has been published. Few understand these later products of Powell. Many condemn them; but Gilbert expresses his usual clear, unbiassed view of things and says (and I can do no better than to quote him, a man of remarkably direct thought, and for many years very close to Powell): “His philosophic writings belong to a field in which thought has ever found language inadequate, and are for the present, so far as may be judged from the reviews of Truth and Error, largely misunderstood. Admitting myself to be of those who fail to understand much of his philosophy, I do not therefore condemn it as worthless, for in other fields of his thought events have proved that he was not visionary, but merely in advance of his time.”

One inexplicable action in his career, to my mind, was his complete ignoring in his report of the men and their work, of his second river expedition, particularly of his colleague, Prof. Thompson, whose skill and energy were so largely responsible for the scientific and practical success of the second expedition. The report embodied all the results achieved by this expedition and gave no credit to the men who with unflagging zeal, under stress and difficulties innumerable accumulated the data. This has ever appeared to me unjust, but his reasons for it were doubtless satisfactory to himself. The second expedition is put on record, for the first time in this volume, except for a lecture of mine printed some years ago in the Bulletin of the American Geographical Society.

The life of Powell is an example of the triumph of intelligent, persistent endeavour. Long ago he had formulated many of his plans and as far back as 1877, and even 1871, as I understood them, he carried them out with remarkable precision. Before the authorisation of the Bureau of Ethnology, its scope was developed in his mind and he saw completed the many volumes which have since been published. His power to observe the field ahead, standing on the imperfections of the present, was extraordinary. As a soldier he was a patriot, as an explorer he was a hero. As a far-seeing scientific man, as an organiser of government scientific work, as a loving, friendly, and a delightful comrade whether by the camp-fire or in the study, and as a true sympathiser with the aspirations and ambitions of subordinates or equals, there has seldom been his superior.

APPENDIX

In the Marble and Grand Canyons the fall is as follows.[[1]] The vertical dotted lines of diagram on page 57 give these divisions, beginning at the left with 2.

[1] After Dutton, Tertiary History, p. 240.

DISTANCE FALL FALL
IN IN IN
MILES FEET FEET PER
MILE
I. Marble Canyon...........................65.2——-510——-7.82
2. Little Colorado to the Granite..........18.2——-110——-6.04
3. Granite Falls...........................10———-210——21.
4. To Powell’s Plateau in the Granite......26.4——-320——12.13
5. Around western base of Powell’s Plateau.10.8——-100——-9.26
6. Head of Kanab Division..................4.0———-50——10.42
7. Main Kanab and Uinkaret Division........65.2——-310——-4.75
8. Shewits Division to Granite.............12————70——-5.83
9. Granite to Diamond Creek................ 8———-210——11.66
10. Granite below Diamond Creek............ 7.2———25——-3.47
ll. Granite below Diamond Creek............10.8——-100——-9.26
12. Shewits Granite to End of Canyon.......35———-175——-5.
From Little Colorado to Kaibab Division.....9.6———60——-6.25
Kaibab Division............................58———-700——12.07
Kanab Division.............................47.6——-240——-5.01
Uinkaret Division..........................19.2——-100——-5.21
Shewits Division...........................84———-540——-6.43