Foiij-scroith Annual Meeting. 33 



Arickaree was fought in the same month in which the Society 

 was organized, and Sheridan's winter campaign, in which the 

 Nineteenth Kansas participated, and which broke the strength 

 of the Plains tribes, occurred the following winter. Small 

 wonder that the advance of scientific investigation was slow 

 and that people expressed small interest in such work. The 

 people generally were fully occupied earning the necessities of 

 life. So we find a very small band of investigators on the 

 82,000 square miles that was the foundation of a great state 

 yet to be, but not yet arrived. This area w^as covered with a 

 vegetation largely unknown, an unknown population of birds, 

 mammals, fishes, reptiles and insects, while the mineral re- 

 sources were but a guess. Clearly the first work needed was 

 an inventory, and it was along this line that the members 

 proceeded. It is true that some work had been done, but the 

 condition of the scientific knowledge of the state is vividly 

 portrayed in an article in the Journal of Education a little 

 previous to this time, in which the importance of a geological 

 survey was urged. This article advanced the argument that 

 if such a survey only succeeded in discovering coal and salt it 

 would richly repay the cost. 



With this hasty view of the condition of the state at the 

 time of the organization of the Academy it is my purpose to 

 show from the Transactions how the Academy has made defi- 

 nite contributions to the much-needed scientific knowledge. I 

 find myself embarrassed with a wealth of material. It will be 

 impossible to do justice to the individual workers. I can only 

 mention the names of those most prominent in the few lines 

 I shall here record. 



From the beginning of its existence, probably the most 

 cherished ambition of the Academy was the securing of an 

 adequate geological survey of the state. The mineral resources 

 were practically unknown, and much money was being wasted 

 in ventures that with fuller knowledge would have been suc- 

 cessful, or else would not have been attempted. Hardly a 

 meeting passed without some discussion of this topic. At the 

 seventh meeting Professor Mudge read a very earnest paper 

 on the importance of a geological survey of the state. At the 

 eighth meeting a committee was appointed to draft resolutions 

 urging such a survey, and at the ninth meeting these resolu- 

 tions were adopted. At the sixteenth meeting, in the address 

 —3 



