714 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
In the first year of his residence at Racine, Dr. Roy made the 
acquaintance of Dr. Lapham, and the two men remained devoted 
friends and fellow students of nature until Dr. Lapham’s death nearly 
thirty years later. Dr. Hoy was interested in every side of natural 
history but gave most attention to animal life. His collection of 
birds, insects, fishes, etc., was very large and yielded important in¬ 
formation regarding the fauna of the newly-settled region. He was 
also the first to pay special attention to the biology of Lake Michigan 
and its fish fauna. 
Like Dr. Lapham, Dr. Hoy gave himself to advancing natural 
science in Wisconsin at a time when very few members of a frontier 
population were occupied with anything outside of the labors and the 
profits of a pioneer life. These two men are in a peculiar sense rep¬ 
resentatives of those few who initiated the study of nature in the 
state and carried it on with a devotion and enthusiasm that made 
possible the organization of science in the Academy and a little later 
in the Geological Survey. 
Dr. Hoy was a charter member of the Academy and was its presi¬ 
dent, 1875-78. He contributed numerous short papers, mainly on 
zoological subjects, to the earlier volumes of the Transactions. 
ROLAND DUEIR IRVING, 1847-1888. 
Professor Irving was a native of New York City, a graduate of 
Columbia College and of its School of Mines. He was appointed 
professor of geology in the University of Wisconsin in 1870, when he 
was twenty-three years old, and he held this position until his death. 
In 1873 he became assistant geologist of the State Geological Survey. 
In this position he contributed much to the knowledge of the diffi¬ 
cult geology of the Lake Superior region and he also introduced the 
then new methods of microscopic petrology. After the close of his 
field work on the State Survey in 1880 he continued work in the Lake 
Superior district as a member of the United States Geological Survey, 
and became the first authority in. the country on the intricate prob¬ 
lems of pre-Cambrian geology. 
Professor Irving was as definitely the leader of the university on 
the side of science as was Professor Allen on that of the humanities. 
His capacity for investigation made him the first member of the fac¬ 
ulty of the University of Wisconsin to attain a position among Amer¬ 
ica’s leading men of science. 
He entered the Academy in 1870 and was its president, 1881-84. 
Several papers by him are found in the early volumes of the Transac¬ 
tions; but, as is the case with Dr. Chamberlain, most of his geological 
work was published in the reports of the Wisconsin Geological Survey 
and the United States Geological Survey. 
