MEMOIR OF RALPH STOCKMAN TARR SI 



In what follows I shall draw largely from these sources, which form for 

 more than a decade a record of his activities. 



Tarr's first geological field work was done on Cape Ann under Shaler's 

 direction. In Shaler's Eeport on the Geology of Cape Ann he states "by 

 far the larger part of the field observations embodied in this memoir have 

 been made by my assistant, Mr. Ealph S. Tarr." 2 



Upon the organization of the arid land work of the U. S. Geological 

 Survey, under Newell, Tarr left college to spend the government year 

 1887-1888 in that service. Following this experience he acted as assist- 

 ant geologist, under Dumble, on the Geological Survey of Texas in 1889- 

 1890. From San Saba, Texas, he wrote, December 25, 1889 : 



".. . . I am hustling things as fast as I can, for I want to make every 

 moment count." 



In the summer of 1890 Tarr was back in New England, assisting 

 Shaler in mapping the glacial deposits of Massachusetts and Connecticut 

 for the U. S. Geological Survey. He was elected a Fellow of the Geo- 

 logical Society of America in August of that year. 



That fall he reentered the Lawrence Scientific School to complete the 

 work for the bachelor's degree, graduating with the class of 1891. Dur- 

 ing the academic year he also acted as assistant in geology in the labo- 

 ratories. 



In the summer of 1891 he was engaged as Professor Wolff's assistant 

 on the U. S. Geological Survey in the highlands of New Jersey. On July 

 18 he wrote from Andover, New Jersey : 



"My work is getting along swimmingly, if by that you mean I am entirely 

 at sea ! . . . The only way is to plug ahead blindly with the areal work, 

 putting down and plotting every observation and examining all the ground. 

 The problems suggest themselves, then, and then comes the solution." 



Again, on October 14, he wrote: 



". . . Foerste 3 is in the vicinity knocking out fossils. He has found fos- 

 sils in three of my localities. What an eye he has! It almost seems as If be 

 had an extra sense entirely lacking in me." 



Still later, November 29, he says: 



"Since returning I have been plugging away and making little progress, 

 though I believe I am on the track of sonic interesting things. Still this ni:iy 

 be the same old will-o'-the-wisp which has been leading me on all summer. 

 Time and time again I have been almost persuaded that 1 had the matter in 

 hand to find a thing which disproved it all." . . . 



2 Report of the Director of the IT. S. Geological Survey for L888 1880, p 

 3 Dr. August f. Foerste, i<\<:.s. A., then assistant, U, s. Geological Burvey, 



