He spent a summer in Europe with Herbert E. Gregory and Charles Hyde Warren, travelling on foot, bicycle and third-class trains so as to be able to observe the land and geology with little interest in cities.

He married Lena Hopper Bailey in 1902, and in 1903 he was invited by Yale University to develop a course in structural geology.

He also worked with the United States Geological Survey to study the Elkhorn Mining District of Montana (1899).

Another major advance he made was in the production of marine sediments and his ideas on how to determine ancient shore lines.

An example of his original thinking was in his examination of the evolution of air-breathing in fishes in the light of evidence for climatic and environmental changes.