MEMOIR OF W. P. BLAKE 39 



Professor Blake was a Fellow of the Geological Society of America 

 from 1891 to 1898, when he resigned. He joined again in 1907 and 

 maintained the connection till his death. He was likewise a member or 

 fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the 

 American Philosophical Society, and the Geological Society of London, 

 and a corresponding member of the Geological Society of Edinburgh. 



I first made the acquaintance of Professor Blake in 1868, when I was 

 beginning my work as United States commissioner of mining statistics. 

 In that work I received from him invaluable assistance, and our acquaint- 

 ance ripened to a friendship which was never broken. In 1873 we were 

 both commissioners to the A^ienna Exposition, and after we left Vienna 

 he and his charming wife^' joined our party in a journey by carriage 

 through the Bavarian Tyrol. They Avere ideal traveling companions, 

 merrily superior to all inconveniences of the way, and eagerly apprecia- 

 tive of scenic beauty, historic associations, nature, and human nature. 



The portrait accompanying this notice will recall to many friends the 

 striking personal beauty of Professor Blake. His hair turned white while 

 he was still a young man and retained throughout his life its abundant 

 growth, which, together with his noble face, gave to his head almost the 

 aspect of the Phidian Jove. But the clear, ruddy complexion, bright 

 eyes, and genial smile made him too sympathetically human for such a 

 comparison. In conversation he was fascinating, by reason of his own 

 keen interest in what he was saying. He told a fact as if he had only 

 just discovered it. In the art of delivering in "oral abstract" the sub- 

 stance of a technical paper, and illustrating his remarks by rapid black- 

 board sketches, he had no superior. He did such things with the grace, 

 directness, and lucidity of a generation not pampered with stenographers, 

 typewriters, and lantern slides. Out of our earthly life he has departed — 

 stalwart, versatile, tireless, brave, and gentle to the last — but from my 

 soul, at least, his splendid presence and his serene yet eager spirit will 

 never depart. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY ^^ 



Preliminary geological report of a reeomioissance and survey in California in 

 connection with explorations for a practicable route from the Mississippi 



6c Professor Blake married, December 25, 1855, Miss Charlotte Haven Lord Hayes, a 

 daughter of V^Mlliam Allen Hayes, of South Berwick, Maine. She died in 1905, at Mill 

 Rock, New Haven, in the fiftieth year of happy wedlock. Of their six children three 

 survive them : Francis H. Blake, Litchfield, Connecticut, and .Joseph A. Blake, M. D., and 

 Theodore Whitney Blake, of New York City. 



^d Arranged chronologically, save for contributions to the chief periodicals and pro- 

 ceedings of learned societies, which are grouped together. 



Reprinted from the President's Report to the Board of Regents of the University of 

 Arizona for 1909. 



