VIII ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



publication of the Transactions can have any idea of the amount of 

 work he put into his contributions. 



His industry was incessant, more so than the requirements of his 

 health permitted. He found time to write a number of volumes which 

 have not only been highly valued in Canada, but are much esteemed 

 abroad. Among them is the history of Canada in the "Story of Nations 

 Series" and a volume on Canada under British rule in the " Cambridge 

 University Series." This was his last published volume, and in many 

 respects it is his best. 



The knowledge of parliamentary institutions which accrued from 

 his official position was supplemented by indefatigable study. The re- 

 sult is apparent in the fact that his work on parliamentary procedure is 

 the authority on such questions throughout the Dominion. It is not 

 only conclusively quoted in all the legislatures of Canada, but is quoted 

 as a standard reference in the legislatures of other colonies. On these 

 and kindred subjects he was frequently invited as a lecturer before 

 universities and societies in the United States as well as in Canada ; and 

 wherever he went he did credit to his native country and to its rising 

 literature. Many years must pass before his place can be filled. We 

 deplore his loss for the sake of the Eoyal Society of Canada, and for 

 ourselves, personally, we lament the loss of a friend. 



Dr. A. E. C. Selwyn, one of the original Fellows of the Royal Socie- 

 ty of Canada, for twenty-five years director of the Geological Survey of 

 Canada, for eighteen years previous director of the Geological Survey 

 of Victoria, Australia, and for seven years previous to that attached to 

 the field staff of the Geological Survey of England and Wales, died in 

 Vancouver, British Columbia, on the 19th of October, 1903, the result 

 of a stroke of paralysis. 



At the early age of twenty-one, in 1845, he was appointed to a posi- 

 tion on the Geological Survey of Great Britain, under Sir Henry de la 

 Beche. His earliest work on the British Survey was under the imme- 

 diate supervision of the distinguished geologist. A, C. Ramsay. He 

 was one of that contingent of stratigraphical geologists under Ramsay 

 v/ho did so much to lay down the fundamental lines separating the 

 various formations in that wonderful compendium of geology that 

 England has proved to be. 



In 1869 he was called to succeed Sir Wm. Logan as director of the 

 Geological Survey of Canada, which position he held for twenty-five 

 years. He leaves behind him a career full of usefulness to the Empire, 

 for his work was performed not only in Canada, but in the Motherland 

 and in two of her most prosperous colonies. 



Dr. Selwyn received many honours and occupied numerous dis- 

 tinguished positions, in his capacity as head of the Geological Surveys 



