74 The Ottawa Naturalist. [Aug. -Sept. 



April 7th was 44 Far., wind S.W.-N.W., heavy rain in afternoon 



coming with strong 

 westerly wind. 

 " 8th " 24 " " N.W.. snow flurries: 



OBITUARY. 



Rev. George W. Taylor, F.R.S.C. Nanaimo, B.C. 



In the death of the Rev. George W. Taylor, on August 22nd, 

 Canadian zoology loses one of its most distinguished workers. 

 To a great many of his friends in eastern Canada, especially in 

 Ottawa, the announcement must have come with a shock of 

 surprise, for when last in the Capital, five years ago, attending 

 the Royal Society meetings, as a Fellow, he was full of vigour 

 and activity. He received something like an ovation from his 

 brother scientists here, as his visits, owing to his residence on 

 the Pacific coast, were of rare occurrence. With his great 

 friend, the late Dr. James Fletcher, he spent much time on his 

 last visit, but he had hosts of other friends who were delighted 

 to see him once more in Ottawa. Born in Derbv, England, in 

 1854, he became connected with the excellent Natural Historv 

 Museum in that busy railway centre, and acquired a reputation 

 as an original observer, but on coming to Canada in 1882 he 

 applied himself, with such vigour and success, to work in 

 conchology and entomology that he soon took a first place as 

 an authority; his collections of land and freshwater shells, and 

 of marine mollusca, and his collection of N. A. Geometridae 

 are amongst the finest in existence. 



As a clergyman of the Church of England much of his time 

 was taken up with parish work in Ottawa, Ont., and in Victoria, 

 Nanaimo, and Wellington. B.C., but he never abated in his 

 devotion to scientific studies. For some years he gave up clerical 

 work, and resided in a lovely but lonely spot at the north end 

 of Gabriola Island, in the Straits of Georgia, in order to investi- 

 gate the marine zoology of the nearby marvellously rich waters, 

 and in the hope that a biological station would be founded there 

 by the Dominion Government. This long cherished ambition 

 was at last gratified when, in 1909, laboratory buildings were 

 erected at Departure Bay, and the Board of Management, 

 composed of professors in the chief universities of the Dominion 

 chose him as the first curator, a position he held until his death. 

 He threw himself with all his energy into his new duties, and 

 by constant dredging expeditions and shore collecting ac- 

 cumulated a vast collection of marine holies and invertebrates, 



