Section IV., 1904 [ 173 J Trans. E. S. C. 



XI. — Memorial or Sketch of the Life of the late Dr. A. R. C. Selwyn, 

 C.M.G., LL.D., F.R.S., F.O.S., etc., etc., Director of the 



Geological Survey of Canada from 1SG9 to 1SD4. 



By H. M. Ami, M.A., D.Sc, F.G.S. 



Of the Geological Survey of Canada, ; 



(Read June 23, 1904.) 



Geological science in Canada has suffered very severe losses during 

 the past few years. The two Dawsons, father and son, who had been 

 foremost in advancing the best interests of geology for the past forty 

 years, died witihin a brief space of time one from the other. They were 

 both presidents of the Eoyal Society of Canada in turn, the former its 

 first president in 1882, the latter its president in 1894. They were 

 Nestors in geology. Now, we are grieved to chronicle the loss of 

 another eminent geologist; one, who for twenty-five years wrought hard 

 as the head of the Geological Survey of Canada and as successor to the 

 eminent founder of that important bureau of information for the 

 people of Canada, Sir William Logan. 



Since tlie loss of Sir Wm. Logan in 1876, and that of Billings 

 about the same time, combined with the loss of Dr. Thomas Sterry 

 Hunt, a few years later, that splendid triumvirate who gave us that 

 excellent compendium of geology, " The Geology of Canada," pub- 

 lished by the Geological Survey of Canada in 1863, at no period in 

 ihe history of this country has there been such a loss from the ranks 

 of those engaged in recording the stores of plenty in the earth's crust, 

 as well as in deciphering the story of this world as it is wT-itten in 

 indelible traits on the marvellous pages of the great book of Nature 

 in Canada. 



Dr. A. R. C. Selwyn, C.M.G., LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S., for twenty- 

 five years the eminent Director of the Geological Survey of Canada 

 (1869-1894), and one of the original Fellows of the Eoyal Society of 

 Canada, died in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Sunday the 19th day 

 of October, 1903, the result of a stroke of paralysis. 



His death was not altogether unexpected, for he had been ailing 

 for some time past, but it removed from our midst one of the most 

 active and energetic personalities in the field of geological work and 

 science in North America. Selwyn did much to advance the practical 

 or economic side of geology as well as the highest fundamental prin- 

 ciples on which that science is based. His coming to America marks 

 an era in the progress of geological thought and investigation, inasmuch 



Sec. IV.. 1904. 12 



