Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: [TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF MINING ENGINEERS.] Biographical Notice of Joseph Le Conte. BY S. B. CHRISTY, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, CAL. (Mexican Meeting, November, 1901.) In the death of Joseph Le Conte, at Yosemite, Cal., on July 6, 1901, the Institute has lost one of its most distinguished honorary members, and the University of California its most beloved professor. The South has produced many distinguished men. In the law, in politics, and in war, they have made their mark, and we are all proud of their records. But in science not so many have achieved distinction. The Le Conte family is thus the more remarkable, in that it has produced three men of eminence in that field, while there are descendants of promise yet to be heard from. It is always interesting to trace the influences that go to make a great life; and in this case I am able to draw upon an abundance of material in the manuscript autobiography which Prof. Le Conte completed shortly before his death. Through the kindness of Mrs. Le Conte, I am permitted to make such extracts as may be needed to give a glimpse of his remarkable life and character. This autobiography, together with other unpublished notes and sketches of his experiences during the Civil War, covers nearly 600 closely-written pages, and is one of the most fascinating stories I have ever read. It is to be hoped that it will be published entire; for, while it is written with all the frankness of the Confessions of Rousseau, it depicts a noble character without a trace of morbid self-consciousness, breathes a high philosophic spirit, and is enlivened with a fine sense of humor. It is particularly interesting where it depicts a form of society that has now passed away forever:—the almost ideal life that existed i...