igoi] Ami — The late George M. Dawson. 45 



Chief Commissioner for Britain. His excellent report upon the 

 Geology and Mineral Resources of the 49th parallel from the Lake 

 of the Woods to the Pacific Ocean marked him out as a scholar 

 and an eminent observer. He was only twenty five years of age 

 when this report was prepared. This volume was so eagerly 

 sought, that it is now out of print, the edition being soon ex- 

 hausted and a copy is conceded to be actually worth its weight in 

 gold. 



Then it was that were laid down the lines upon his subsequent 

 career and researches lay, for in July 1875, ^^'hen he received from 

 the Dominion Government an appointment on the Geological Sur- 

 vey staff, as Chief Geologist, his explorations and researches led 

 him into the vast and then practically unknown Northwest Terri- 

 tories, and in British Columbia. In the mass of his voluminous 

 and much-sought-for reports upon the resources of the districts 

 which he examined and explored will be found the most authentic 

 and useful information on those now rapidly developing and flour- 

 ishing districts. In his Yukon explorations of 1887 and 1888, he 

 examined and reported upon that most valuable and important 

 district to which the world has been and is still looking for most 

 years for a goodly share of its source of supply of gold. He was 

 the real discoverer and describer of that now famous gold-bearing 

 belt in which there is happily left as a monument to his indefatig- 

 able researches in the eighties the capital town or city of the 

 Yukon Territory, which now bears his name. 



Not onlv were his mental strenofth and intellectual vigour 

 rem'arkable but even his powers of physical endurance were great. 

 As an instance of the latter, may be mentioned a boat journey of 

 1,300 miles and a portage of fifty from the Valley of the Liard to 

 that of the Yukon, as one of the feats which his zeal and energy as 

 an explorer accomplished. It would be superfluous here to give 

 even a synopsis of his numerous reports, suffice it to say that they 

 are all most readable and full of useful information on the reerions 

 traversed. 



Besides being an eminent geologist, he was also a foremost 

 naturalist. Amongst his contributions to the Empire may be 

 mentioned his work as one of the Commissioners appointed by 

 Her Late Majesty Queen Victoria, as one of the arbiters in the 



