[ADAMS] IN MEMORIAM—SIR JOHN WILLIAM DAWSON 5 
abound. It was hard work, as the wind one day was stormy, and we 
had to look sharp lest the rocking of living trees just ready to fall from 
the top of the undermined cliff should cause some of the old fossil 
ones to come down upon us by the run. But I never enjoyed the 
reading of a marvellous chapter of the big volume more. We missed 
a botanical aide-de-camp much when we came to the top and bottoms of 
calamites and all sorts of strange pranks which some of the compressed 
trees played.” 
In 1853 he was invited by Sir Edmund Head, then Governor- 
General of Canada, to be a member of a commission to report upon the 
reorganization of the University of New Brunswick. 
In 1854 Forbes, who was professor of geology and zoology in ‘the 
University of Edinburgh, died, and Lyell wrote to Sir William, advising 
him to apply for the chair, promising him his support and that of 
a number of his influential friends, while Sir Williams “ Acadian 
Geology,” which had just been published in Edinburgh, testified to 
his abundant fitness for the position. He was about to set sail for 
Scotland to prosecute his candidature for the chair, when he received 
word that the place had been filled sooner than had been anticipated, 
by the appointment of a zoologist who had been strongly supported by 
the medical school of the university, but, by a strange coincidence, 
he received, almost on the very day that he was to sail for Scotland, 
a letter offering him the principalship of McGill University. 
This institution, founded by royal charter in 1821, had made but 
slow progress in its earlier years, and was at this time, through litiga- 
tion and other causes, almost in a state of collapse. Sir William, 
then Mr. Dawson, was pointed out to the governors of the college by 
Sir Edmund Head, who had formed a high opinion of his ability, as 
a man who if his services could be secured, was eminently fitted to 
undertake the task of reconstructing it. ‘The services of Mr. Dawson 
were accordingly enlisted, and in 1855 he assumed the principalship 
of McGill University, stipulating at the same time that the chair of 
natural history should be assigned to him. In his Inaugural Discourse, 
delivered in November of this year, he said:—“ Believing that in 
connection with this Institution and in this the chief city of British 
North America, I should have the best opportunities of promoting the 
study of the subjects to which I have devoted myself and at the same 
time of advancing the cause of education, I determined without hesi- 
tation to cast in my lot with yours; and I humbly trust that with the 
blessing of God on diligent effort I may be able to carry out the objects 
of my appointment. At a time when literary and scientific pursuits 
are so widely ramified, everyone who aims to do anything well must 
