i 



50 The Ottawa Naturalist. [May 



facts and specimens. Accordingly, his reports sometimes contain 

 as many as a dozen appendices on all kinds of subjects of import- 

 ance and interest to our country. The floras and faunas met with, 

 the insects and Crustacea, the shells of the land and of the sea, 

 weather reports and other interesting meteorological observations; 

 as well as the fossil organic remains of the district which he visited, 

 he ever looked after most carefully, for he truly knew their great 

 value as horizon markers. He not only submitted these various 

 collections to specialists and authorities throughout the country 

 and abroad from whom he received further information from time 

 to time but examined and described them himself. 



Later, in the Report of Progress for 1878-79, he gives notes on 

 the geology of areas drained by the Red and Assiniboine River^ 

 in Manitoba, and also describes the Coal deposits of the Lignite 

 Tertiary of the Souris River, trom the Great Valley and Porcupine 

 Creek. The report of his explorations on the Skeena and down 

 the Peace in 1879 ^""^ embodied in the Report of Progress for the 

 year 1879-80, which is entitled "A report on exploration from Port 

 Simpson to Edmonton, by the Peace River." Much important 

 astronomical data has been furnished the government by Dr. 

 Dawson during his numerous voyages and explorations wh-ich 

 serve to fix the latitude and longitude of distant places on our Map 

 of the Dominion. 



In 1882 Dr. Dawson visited Europe where he carried on 

 studies having for their object the utilization of the lignites of the 

 West as fuels, and the results of his researches were embodied in 

 a subsequent report. 



For a knowledge of the forests of British Columbia the 

 country is under a great debt to Dr. Dawson. He sought not 

 only to bring forward the immense value which they prove to 

 possess but also to point out the best means to preserve such a 

 grand heritage. In the Districts of Alberta and Assiniboia he did 

 much to reveal their hidden geological structure and economic 

 resources, especially as far as coal is concerned. Up to 10,000,000 

 tons of coal to the square mile for hundreds of square miles of 

 territory he has described and reported, and time will only serve 

 to emphasize the accuracy of his carefully sought out facts from the 

 bosom of Nature which was ever ready to yield her secrets to him, 



