86 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ALBANY MEETING 



laboratory Avas due to the facility he had in the use of his hands. 

 Throughout his life he enjoyed working with tools, with which he had 

 remarkable proficiency. This manual dexterity was destined to do him 

 good service in his Alaska explorations and again in his Nicaraguan 

 work. He' had rather exceptional mechanical skill and during his Mexi- 

 can career deA'ised an improA^ement on a device for loading petroleum 

 tank steamers. 



The courses in geology and mineralogy receive no mention in Hayes's 

 Oberlin letters. Only one reference is found to geology, and that is after 

 a lecture by Prof. George F. Wright on a terminal moraine. Hayes then 

 learned that he had lived on one of these moraines, and he Avrites to his 

 sister : 



"According to Professor Wright, tlie terminal moraine passes tlirough Lidd- 

 ing County, ... a little west of Hanover. We must look up its track some 

 time and see if we can trace a piece of it ourselves. ... I want to take a 

 geological trip up Muskingum River. Wouldn't you enjoy such a lark? One 

 summer, you know, we found botany enough in our back lot to keep us busy, 

 and I think there is geology enough within reach of Hanover to keep us busy 

 another summer. What a lot of things are to be seen and studied when one 

 has once had his eyes opened. A favored few seem to be born with their eyes 

 open, but most of us have to have them opened for us." 



One of his teachers at Oberlin writes as follows : 



"Doctor Hayes was a good all-round student, standing well above the aver- 

 age of the class in ability, and having, as I remember him, a certain mental 

 poise which generally belongs to a later stage of student life. His Avork was 

 never hurried and never lagged. A little slow in judgment, he was clear and 

 sure, with an undemonstrative enthusiasm which kept him steadily at work 

 and made him ahvays a pleasant personality in the class-room or the social 

 circle." 



Another, Avho knew him only during his Oberlin days, writes as follows 

 of his recollections, thus proving that many of the fundamental traits of 

 Hayes's character Avere Avell developed even as a youth : 



"Hayes was efficient rather than aggressive. He depended for his unques- 

 tioned brilliancy on sustained effort rather than on surface brilliancy. He was 

 quiet rather than forward, more inclined to refrain from talking in order to 

 think than to refrain from thinking in order to talk. For this reason, doubt- 

 less, he ahvays gave the impression of forces in reserve. . . . He was one 

 to whom a man would go for counsel, knowing that it would be given carefully 

 and wisely, but that he would be the last to volunteer advice to another." 



As Hayes supported himself for his entire academic career, he earned 

 money by various vocations during the Oberlin days. It is recorded that. 



