I goo] Ami — Annual Address. 271 



enough in each of these three classes of work to satisfy any three 

 hard-workingf individuals ! He leaves behind him such monu- 

 ments of industry and perseverance as tew cnen do. The Peter 

 Redpath Museum ot McGill University alone is a monument which 

 for ages will give food for thought to the coming generations both 

 of students in the University and to the geologists who seek to 

 unravel the problems of geological science in different portions of 

 Canada, but more especially with reference to those of the Mari- 

 time Provinces, his native land. 



Sir William was born in the town of Pictou, Nova Scotia, on 

 October i^th, 1820, and just as the first hour of the day of rest 

 dawned last Sunday, November loth, 1899, he departed to his long 

 rest. He has done more to stimulate and encourage the study of 

 the natural sciences, and especially of geology, in Canada than 

 any other individual. His vast store of knowledge, acquired by 

 dilicrent labour in the broad field of nature as well as in the labora- 

 tory, embraced several of the leading sciences, and at one time, 

 owing to circumstances in connection with the University over 

 which he presided for a period of forty years so successfully, his 

 courses of lectures included chemistry, botany, zoology, together 

 with geology, palaeontology and mineralogy. 



As a paiaeo-botanist. Sir William's reputation was world-wide, 

 and his descriptions of the fossil floras of Canada from the earliest 

 Palaeozoic, through the Carboniferous on to the Mesozoic and 

 later Tertiaries, to those of more recent times are too well known 

 to be dwelt upon on this occasion. 



No less than seventy-nine distinct papers or articles upon 

 fossil plants have been published by him, and amongst these are 

 included descriptions of the fossil flora found in the Leda-clay 

 formation of the Ottawa Valley. As a student of recent plants 

 he did much to stimulate activity and build up the magnificent 

 herbarium now existing at McGill. His " Acadian Geology," in 

 which are described the succession of the geological formations of 

 Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, as well 

 as their mineral resources, is a most fascinating work. In it he 

 describes not only the various organic remains peculiar to the 

 Atlantic Provinces, but enters into unusually interesting discus- 

 sions regarding the origin of coal, the climatic and other condi. 



