He was Geologist
of the United States Geological Survey from 1883 to 1893, Ethnologist
in Charge of the Bureau of Ethnology from 1893 to 1903, and in 1907
was appointed a Member of the Inland Waterways Commission. Washington
Carruthers Kerr (1827-85), educator and scientist of Ulster Scot
parentage, was State Geologist of North Carolina (1866-82), and
published many papers and reports on his subject. John Muir
(1838-1914), geologist, explorer, naturalist, and author, was born in
Dunbar. "No man since Thoreau ever had keener sympathy with nature, a
quicker vision for her mysteries, or a surer speech for their
interpretation." The establishment of the Yosemite and Sequoia
National Parks and the great Sierra Forest Reservation are due to his
writings. The famous Muir Glacier in Alaska, discovered by him in
1879, will forever blazon his name. Other distinguished geologists who
may be briefly mentioned are: Samuel Calvin (1840-1911), Professor of
Geology in the University of Iowa, born in Wigtownshire; John James
Stevenson (b. 1841), educator and geologist, of Scottish parentage;
Erwin Hinckly Barbour (b. 1856), professor of Geology in the
University of Nebraska; and William Berryman Scott (b. 1858), the
distinguished geologist and palaeontologist of Princeton University.
Asa Gray (1810-88), the greatest of American botanists, was a
descendant of one of the Ulster Scot settlers of 1718. Dr. Alexander
Garden (1728-92), famous as a physician and botanist, was Professor of
Botany in King's College (now Columbia University).
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