270 The Ottawa Naturalist. [February 



terested in g-eology in Canada volunteered to subscribe toward 

 obtaining" a portrait of Mr. Billingfs. An excellent painting" of him 

 is now in the Museum of the Natural History Society of Montreal. 



Inasmuch as Billing's not only developed a taste for and 

 carried on researches: in Geolog"y and Palseontolog"y in Ottawa, it 

 seems particularly appropriate for some such institution or society 

 as our Club to undertake the task of raising" a small fund towards 

 perpetuating his memory in our midst, and I now desire to present 

 the case to your mind, with the subscription list open for your 

 kind and g"enerous consideration, to which list a number of names 

 are already attached. 



With reg"ard to the second sugg'estion made, of erecting" a 

 memorial tablet and placing it in some conspicuous position in our 

 city, this seems to meet the approval also of a number of persons 

 to whom the subject has been broached. A similar memorial 

 tablet has been erected and placed in a conspicuous outcrop of one 

 of the geological formations of Prague, in Bohemia, in honour of 

 the late Joachim Barrande, the great palaeontologist of Central 

 Europe who himself in his lifetime was in communication with 

 Mr. Billings, whom we are seeking to honour for the marvellously 

 large amount of most excellent work which he performed, not 

 only in Canada as a whole, but more especially in Ottawa. 



I snail not attempt to give you a biographical notice of the 

 late Mr. Billings, inasmuch as there exist already a number of 

 fairly complete notices ot his life history. It will suffice to offer 

 for publication in our Transactions such records of his writings 

 and works which in our opinion are greatly needed b} all working 

 palaeontologists, and which in our humble judgment ought long 

 ago to have been prepared. 



the late sir WILLIAM DAWSON. 



I would be remiss of my duty as president of a Club like ours 

 if I did not refer to the loss which science in Canada has so 

 recently sustained in the person of one who during his entire 

 career has taken a most active part in the progress and advance- 

 ment of geological research in our country. I refer to the late 

 principal of McGill University, Sir William Dawson. 



His life was one of unremitting toil in the interests of educa- 

 tion, science and religion. Sir William Dawson accomplished 



