MEMORIAL OF C. W. HAYES 107 



great influence with the Commission. This fact can be read between the 

 lines of Hayeses very modest account of his work, as recorded in his 

 journal, and is also shown by the numerous references to results of the 

 geologist in the report of the Commission. It is perhaps the first in- 

 stance on this continent where the plan for a great engineering project 

 found its principal support in the arguments offered by a physiographer. 



The valuable public service rendered by the Nicaragua Canal Com- 

 mission and its employees was, with the selection of the Panama route, 

 for the most part in vain, except insomuch as it contributed to a better 

 knowledge of a little known region. In this Hayes^s contribution led all 

 the rest. His close analysis of the physiographic history of the jSTicaragua 

 Canal was perhaps his most notable contribution to geomorphology. It 

 stands today as the best treatise on the physiography of any part of 

 Central America. Hayes's writings were all clear and concise, but his 

 Xicaraguan was a masterpiece of physiographic exposition. Though he 

 gave no attention to coral reefs, yet he must be credited with being the 

 first of the modern school of geologists to apply physiographic criteria to 

 a study of shoreline history in a coral reef province. 



An incidental contribution of this investigation was a geologic map 

 of much of Nicaragua. In the preparation of this he was much ham- 

 pered by the physical conditions of the province and by the fact that his 

 administrative duties gave him relatively little opportunity to extend his 

 operations away from the Canal Zone. Hayes was himself pleased with 

 the results of his Nicaragua work. Soon after his return he writes to 

 Eussell : 



"You are right in supposing that I am glad to get out of the woods. The 

 three months for which I went down stretched out to a seemingly interminable 

 length. ... On the whole, it was the most profitable field season T have 

 spent, not excepting the one in Alaska. I have not had much time to look up 

 the literature, but so far as I know Nicaragua is practically a virgin field to 

 the geologist. . . . It is remarkable how much geomorphology is crowded 

 into the narrow strip of country separating the two oceans and how com- 

 pletely it has been overlooked by the many engineers who have visited the 

 region." 



Hayes's eminent success as geologic adviser in engineering works was 

 one of the principal reasons for his assignment to similar duties in the 

 Panama Canal Zone. The plan of a geologic examination at Panama 

 seems to have originated with the Hon. James Bryce. On his return 

 from South America, by way of Panama, he suggested to President Taft 

 the advisability of scientific surveys, especially geological, of the Canal 

 Zone. As a consequence, in 1910 Hayes was detailed to the War Depart- 



