No. 5.J IN MEMORIAM — E. BILLINGS. 253 



ing as a barrister, until the 10th of June, 1852. The following 

 day he returned again toBytown, and here though he opened an 

 office ostensibly to pursue his professional calling, he practically 

 deserted it to a large extent to follow that of a journalist. In 

 those days there were two newspapers in By town the " Citizen " 

 and the " Gazette." The editorial chair of the one was occupied 

 by Mr. Billings,* that of the " Gazette" by a Mr. Gibb. A 

 wordy war not unfrequently arose between the champions of the 

 rival papers, like that which raged between the editors of the 

 Eatanswille Gazette and Independent as chronicled in the pages 

 of Pickwick. On one occasion Mr. Billings' effusions were 

 more forcibly than politely spoken of as "Billingsgate" in the 

 columns of the Gazette, and Mr. Gibb's utterances in their turn 

 were contemptuously summed up as " Gibberish." Many of 

 Mr. Billings' leaders in the Citizen, however, were in a very 

 different vein, being popular articles on geological topics, and 

 these are interesting as illustrative of the commencement of a 

 new mental phase in the writer's existence. They shew the en- 

 thusiasm of a student just entering upon anew world of inquiry 

 who has first begun to catch glimpses of his true vocation. They 

 are marked, also, by the absence of that extreme caution which 

 .characterized some of his later efforts. First law, then jour- 

 nalism, each in its turn were gradually absorbed by, or rather 

 forsaken for, what ultimately became the ruling passion of his 

 life. The fossiliferous Silurian rocks of the banks of the Ottawa 

 soon had greater charms for him than the tedious routine of the 

 district courts, or the editing of a newspaper over whose columns 

 he had no control. Whilst practising at the bar, his keen sense 

 of justice was often wounded by what seemed to him unjust 

 juridical decisions, and it is said that he once barely escaped 

 being indicted before the Grand Jury by his former partner 

 Judge Armstrong for remarks published in the " Citizen " re- 

 flecting on one of his judgments. 



Most of Mr. Billings' time between 1852 and 1856 was em- 

 ployed in the collection of the organic remains of the Lower 

 Silurian rocks near Ottawa city, and he obtained, in particular, 

 n fine and unique series of Crinoids. Cystideans and Star-fishes, 

 which are now in the Museum of the Geological Survey. On 



♦Apparently from the fall of 1S52 until the close of 1855, though 

 the writer has not been able to ascertain the exact dates at which 

 Mr. Billings' connection with that newspaper began or ended. 



