MEMOIR OF ROBERT HAY. 371 



One of his old time friends said of him that there was no other man in 

 Kansas who had been in perhaps every township of it, or nearly so, and 

 who knew more of the state, her resources and beauties. 



As state geologist he made careful preliminary investigations of the 

 mineral deposits — lead, zinc, salt, coal — and also the natural gas. This 

 work is embodied in reports to the State Board of Agriculture and in the 

 proceedings of the Kansas Academy of Science. 



From time to time he was employed upon special researches by the 

 United States government. The first of these undertakings was that of 

 making a preliminary survey along the southern border of Kansas. 



In 1890 he was made Geologist-in-charge of the artesian investigation 

 of the Great Plains region conducted by the Department of Agriculture. 

 A large and valuable report resulted from these labors. During the last 

 year of his life he was employed to write a special report on the under- 

 ground waters of western Kansas for the United States Geological Survey. 



He was for some time a member of the board of editors of the American 

 Geologist, a member of the American Association for the Advancement 

 of Science, and a founder of this organization. For 18 years he belonged 

 to the Kansas Academy of Science, and prepared for it a complete bib- 

 liography of the geological works published in and about the state. 



Professor Hay was an indefatigable worker. His results, largely the 

 product of voluntary research, were produced in the face of those ob- 

 stacles which necessarily confront a scientific worker on the frontiers of 

 knowledge, but they came from one who studied nature because of his 

 deep love for it. 



His contributions to the geology of the Kansas and Plains regions have 

 been of great service. They were largely of a reconnoissance and intro- 

 ductory character, rather than complete expositions of detail. Although 

 future work may greatly refine his results, they have been of inestimable 

 value not only as additions to our knowledge of the geography and the 

 distribution and sequence of the formations of Kansas, but in many cases 

 by reason of the new and original deductions they contain. 



His scientific papers embrace some 30 titles, principally upon geologic 

 subjects. His works have been of especial interest in giving a concep- 

 tion of the nature of the Tertiary Plains formations, which he has de- 

 scribed in several papers. Two of his most interesting papers have been 

 printed since his death. They are "Geology of the Fort Riley Military 

 Reservation "*. and " Water Resources of a Portion of the Great Plains. "f 



By a strange fatality the opportunities for perfected publication of the 

 two chief works of his life were interrupted. Just as the proofs of his 



* Bulletin no. 137 of the U. S. Geological Survey. 



t Sixteenth Annual Report of the U. S. Geological Survey. 



