Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1890-10-25
WALES FAMOUS GEOLoGIST.

Professor Dana and His Oddities-He's
Too "Cute" to BE "SoId"
| met a shrewd looking ii ut footed
little body bustling up Broadway f"w
ia $ ago as if his very life dcpenied
ul,pn his understanding every other
pedestrian on the thorou@hfare. lis
features were strong, handsome, and
venerable, and as he hastily pic ''cd his
way through the crowd his .ong fl" "g
gray locks were blown this way and
that, forming a sort of aurcole about a
remarkable brow.
This curious piece of nervous energy
was recognized by more than one As he
went spinning up the street, for it was
none other than Yale's famous geoIogi.t,
Professor Dana, graphically dubbed
Roxy" by his youthful disciples.
Professor Dana passed his three score
years and ten limit several wears ago,
but he still continues to hustle and to
explain the mystery of the rocks with
the same ardor that he displayed in his
youth. As pedestrian he is indcfatiga-
bic, and when he conducts Il purity of
geological students across the hills and
fells of New Haven, as he is i'll the habit
Of doing frequently during term time, he
invariably overwearies even the sturii-
est among them.
The venerable professor is a hard man
to circumvent, though the fun loving
Yalensians have frequently made the
effort 1t was on the occasion of one of
these excursions TINT a couple of frisky
juniors attempted bit of trckery that
only ended in their own chagrin. The
entire class was invited to accompany
the professor to Huntergreen Lake, on an
appointed day, to inspect some ancient
rocks that bore evidence of having been
scratched by glacier, in a very early age.
On the day preceding the proposed eX-
cursion these willy juniors visited the
lake and decorated some rocks in the
neighborhood with clever imitation of
the real glacial scratches.
Then on the next day they directed
Professor Dana's attention to these new
marks with no little flourish of trumpets.
And were those, too, made by the
glaciers?" they queried innocently.
They are precisely similar to the
others.
But the professor was equal to the
emergency. His glasses had bridged
his nose in a moment and his eyes under
taken close survey of the cabilistic
signs. "They appear more as if they
had been made by Irishmen, was his
Iaconic explanation, enforced by a
twinkling eye Aud then the band of
biologists, who were waiting for a diff
ferent denouement had the laugh on
| their comrades.
Professor Dana gave somewhat SIM
liar illustration of his shrewdness one
day in the recitation room 1t is GUS
tomary for the students to bring with
them from time to time such bits of
stone as they have CHANGED across and
to submit them to him for examination
and explanation. "This is piesh of
shyenite and that a very fine speshimen
of mica shst, he would customarilye x-
plain, with an accent peculiarly his own.
And what is this, professor" ques-
toned an eager youth one day as he
placed before him small red specimen
that was strikingly suggestive of bit of
brick.
The professor held it up to the light
and scrutinized it with the closest atten-
ton. Then his brow contracted, and he
said slowly and ponderously: "This, sir,
is a rare piesh Of impudence. VI New
| Itxk Tnrald