202 The Ottawa Naturalist. [February 



and all she teaches in lake, in forest, in autumn, in winter, in 

 sorrow, in comfort, led him into those numberless nooks and se- 

 questered spots which enchant the eye, please the mind and en- 

 trance the soul. 



In him the Club has lost one of its best friends and sympa- 

 thizers. His was an observant as well as a contemplative soul. 

 We have caught him many a time fairly revelling in the beauties 

 of Nature-scenes surrounding our city, especially in those least 

 frequented spots in the wilds of Nature where the ruthless hands 

 of man hath not yet laid everything low. How he loved to pore 

 over the harmonies of Nature as his pure true spirit saw them in 

 their virgin beauty and grandeur with which his soul communed ! 

 His poems ought to be in the hands of every field-naturalist. The 

 seasons, the flowers, the birds, the forest, the storm, were so 

 many voices to him which the tender and responsive chords of his 

 delicate nature and temperament understood and with which he 

 was intensely enamoured. In the volume edited by our fellow 

 townsman, Mr. Duncan Campbell Scott, his descriptions reveal a 

 heart that has tasted and seen the lovelinesses and beauties of the 

 favourite haunts of our Club about Ottawa, where Lampman used 

 to drink in those lovely sights that our eyes have witnessed and 

 which his pen has so happily traced. We mourn his loss, but 

 cherish and revere his memory. 



Billings Memorial. 



The late Elkanah Billings, who for twenty years was palaeon- 

 tologist to the Geological Survey of Canada and was the founder of 

 the "Canadian Naturalist and Geologist," was born in the township 

 of Gloucester, along the right bank of the Rideau River in the old, 

 and now demolished Billings homestead situated a few yards be- 

 low the present bridge which spans that river at the little village 

 of Billings Bridge. He was the second son of Mr. Bradish 

 Billings whose ancestors came from England while those on his 

 mother's side came from Wales. His grandfather was a Brock- 

 ville physician. Dr. Elkanah Billings, after whom the subject of 

 this sketch was named. Both his parents, however, were born in 

 the United States, his father in Massachussets and his mother in 

 New York State. 



