188 | ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
In common with British subjects in all parts of the world, he was 
deeply stirred by the occurrences of the South African war, and after 
the battle of Paardeberg (February 25th, 1900), in which his fellow 
countrymen played so conspicuous a part, he wrote as follows :— 
“We know to-day our tale of dead, 
Spent on the sun-baked windy plain, 
Our best, who left us without dread, 
But may not now return again. 
But pride is mingled with our tears, 
The seed grows to the stately tree; 
We know that in the tide of years 
We sow for empire yet to be. 
Our loss our gain — nor sorrow felt 
As rising in the east we see 
The day flood all the waiting veldt. 
But fathers, mothers, sisters, wives, 
Your loss is more than you can bear; 
For you those young, exultant lives 
Gone out, is darkness everywhere. : 
We grieve with you, we stand to aid.” 
* * * * * * * 
And yet his view of the war was not a wholly one-sided one, his 
fairness and his admiration for the Boer being evidenced by the fol- 
lowing lines: 
“The silent Boer that lies a clod, 
He was a father or a son 
Upon his dry, grey Transvaal sod 
Among the rocks that we have won. 
His narrow soul was true and strong, 
To fend us from his home and kraal 
He gave his life — we know him wrong, 
But find him worthy after all; 
And when in days to come the song 
Of later harvests shall be sung 
He will have part in that South land 
As elder brother, true and strong. 
Each spring that rises on the veldt 
Will cast its wreath of self-sown flowers, 
Will breathe its fragrance and be felt 
About his grave as over ours. 
Not all is lost if life be spent, 
For it is good to truly die, 
To give to that extreme extent 
If so be freedom lives thereby. 
The things not seen, beyond the veil, 
Have harvest also full and true, 
And loss we reckon but by tale 
Is measured there—to each his due.” 
Dr. Dawson’s geological work was carried on chiefly in the region 
of the great prairies of the Northwest and ‘British Columbia, but he 
was thoroughly informed as to the geology of all parts of the Domin- 
jon. in the Northwest he paid particular attention to the relations of 
at 
