No. 5.] IN MEMORIAM — E. BILLINGS. 261 



Ohaleurs. The whole of the material from these localities had 

 been carefully examined, and it only remained to write the de- 

 scriptions of the different species, but this, alas, he was not des- 

 tined to accomplish. As it is, the only clue to the conclusions 

 arrived at with regard to them, is the existence of labels attached 

 to some specimens in the Museum of the Survey, with new 

 names, proposed but not yet published, printed on them. 



Mr. Billings' private character was marked by great firmness 

 and decision, by an unswerving love of truth and justice, and by 

 an unaffected and winning modesty of demeanour. In his in- 

 tercourse with his fellow-men he was unusually reticent and 

 reserved, especially of late years, but this was largely due to the 

 fact that he rarely met with people who either understood the 

 nature of his studies or sympathized with their object. That he 

 was not devoid of geniality, many of his more intimate friends 

 could easily testify. 



It is pleasant to be able to add that this Society was one of 

 the first to appreciate and foster Mr. Billings' peculiar talents, 

 and that its members have never ceased their endeavours to help 

 him in his official work. On the 25th September, 1854, the 

 year in which he published his first palseontological paper, he 

 was elected a corresponding member of the Society, his name 

 having been proposed by Dr. Benjamin Workman and seconded 

 by Mr. J. H. Joseph. On the 29th of September, 1856, a few 

 weeks after he had accepted the position of Palaeontologist to the 

 Survey, he became a resident member. In the following year 

 the Society relieved him of the responsibility of editing the 

 "Canadian Naturalist," and has regularly superintended its 

 publication up to the present time. The Council and members 

 of the Society voted him its silver medal in 1867, by way of 

 showing their sense of the value of his life-long efforts for the 

 promotion of science in Canada. Since 1862 Mr. Billings has 

 been regularly elected a Vice-President of the Association, and 

 has frequently been pressed to accept the office of President, 

 although he invariably declined nomination. The resolutions 

 passed by the members at a special meeting held soon after his 

 decease, are a tribute of esteem to his personal worth and scien- 

 tific attainments, while the fine portrait by W. Raphael, now 

 hanging in the Society's Hall, is a silent witness to their thought- 

 ful efforts to perpetuate his memory. 



