Ij^ LIBRARY) 3C 



THE BEHRING SEA SEAL COMMISSION^ |ft V 



Every member of the Ottawa Field Naturalists' Club must 

 feel proud that one of our most highly esteemed members, Dr. G. M. 

 Dawson, First Assistant Director of the Geological Survey of Canada, 

 should have been chosen as one of the two British Commissioners en- 

 trusted with the investigation of the habits of the Fur Seal in the Behring 

 Sea. The United States Commissioner is our corresponding member, 

 Dr. C. Hart Merriam, of Washington, who won such golden opinions 

 from all who had the good fortune to meet him in Ottawa a few years 

 ago when he attended our spring outing to Kingsmere, on the occasion 

 of the excursion given by the Club to the Fellows of the Royal Society 

 ofCai;ada. There are no two men in America better fitted to carry 

 out this important investigation, and the association of their names with 

 that of Sir George Baden-Powell, the English Commissioner, ensures 

 that the work will be done in a thorough and scientific manner. Dr. 

 Dawson is the eldest son of Sir William Da^-son, Principal of McGill 

 Universiiy. He was born at Pictou, Nova Scotia, August ist, 1849. 

 Although a comparatively young man, his career has been a brilliant and 

 useful one. Educated at McGill University, Montreal, and the Royal 

 School of Mines, London, England, to the associateship of which he was 

 admitted in 1872, and where he htld the Duke of Cornwall's Scholarship, 

 given by the Prince of Wales, and took the Edward Forbes Medal in 

 Palaeontology and the Murchison Medal in Geology. He was appointed 

 Geologist and Naturalist to Her Majesty's Boundary Commission in 1873, 

 and investigated the country along the boundary of Canada and the 

 United States, from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains. 

 In 1875 he issued his report under the title of " The Geology and Re- 

 sources of the 49th Parallel," and in the same year received an appoint- 

 ment upon the Geological Survey ot Canada, since which time he has 

 done much valuable work in exploring the unknown regions of British 

 Columbia and the North-West Territories. In 1877 he commanded the 

 Yukon river expedition to Alaska, miking a boat voyage of '300 miles, 

 with one portage of 50 miles, from the basin of the Liard to the Yukon. 

 Dr. Davvson has travelled extensively and studied in Europe. He is a 

 member of many scientific bodies, and was one of the original Fellows 

 of the Royal Society of Canada. He is a Doctor of Science, and is also 

 an LL.D. both of Queen's University, Kingston, and McGill Univer 



