186 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
him years of incessant activity, but the results of his work were of great 
scientific value. They were embodied in a report addressed to the 
head of the Commission, Major (now General) D. R. Cameron, R.A., 
and published in Montreal in 1875.1 The volume, which is now looked 
upon as “one of the classics of Canadian geology,” is a model of what 
such reports should be—scientific facts being clearly and succinctly 
stated and the conclusions logically drawn. The main geological result 
arrived at was the examination and description of a section over 800 
miles in length across the central region of the continent, which had 
been previously touched upon at a few points only, and in the vicinity of 
which a space of over 300 miles in longitude had remained even geo- 
graphically unknown. The report discussed not merely the physical 
and general geology of the region, and the more detailed characteristics 
of the various geological formations, but also the capabilities of the 
country with reference to settlement. The whole edition was long ago 
distributed, and the volume is now exceedingly scarce and difficult to 
obtain. While attached to the Boundary Commission, Dawson made 
large collections of natural history specimens, which were forwarded 
to England and found a home in the British Museum, as well as at Kew 
and elsewhere. The British Museum obtained no less than seventeen 
species of mammals not previously represented in its collections. 
More or less in connection with the above work were published 
papers on the “Lignite Formations of the West,” the “Occurrence of 
Foraminifera, Coccoliths, etc., in the Cretaceous Rocks of Manitoba,” 
on “ Some Canadian Species of Spongillæ,” on the“ Superficial Geology 
of the Central Region of North America,” on the “ Locust Invasion of 
1874 in Manitoba and the Northwest Territories,” etc. 
When the work of the Boundary Commission was brought to a 
close, Dawson received an appointment on the staff of the Geological 
Survey of Canada and began in that connection the long series of 
explorations of the Northwest and British Columbia, which brought 
such great credit to himself and his country. In 1883 he was made an 
Assistant Director of the Survey, and later, on the retirement of Dr. 
Selwyn, in 1895, became head of the department, a position which he 
occupied until the time of his death on the 2nd of March, 1901. 
Throughout his connection with the Survey his reports were always of 
a high order, bearing evidence of his striking powers of observation 
and deduction. Though thoroughly scientific, they always took account 
of the practical and economic side of geology, and accordingly com- 

? Report on the Geology and Resources of the Region in the vicinity of 
the Forty-ninth Parallel, from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Moun- 
tains, with Lists of Plants and Animals collected and Notes on the Fossils. 
