X THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
Department and edited the report onthe Geology of the Ottawa valley 
by Mr. N. J. Giroux. 
From 1897-1903 Dr. Ells was engaged alternately in working out 
the Geology of the Eastern Townships and of the Laurentian region of 
Western Quebec. The results of the work in the former area are em- 
bodied in four voluminous reports dealing with the Copper, Gold and 
Asbestos deposits and estimating their economic value. At this time 
he also undertook the supervision of locating the proposed bore hole 
which it was hoped would tap the productive Coal measures underlying 
Prince Edward Island. The field seasons of 1904-05 were spent in the 
Province of British Columbia. At this time an examination was made 
of the Coal fields of the Nicola Valley as well as those of Graham Island 
in the Queen Charlotte group. For several years prior to his death Dr. 
Ells had, as already stated, given particular attention to the study of 
Bituminous shales of the Maritime Provinces, but especially those of 
Albert and Westmorland counties in the Province of New Brunswick, 
in the economic possibilities of which he always expressed his firm 
belief. Not only were the Oil shale deposits themselves carefully in- 
vestigated and mapped but, on behalf of the Dominion Government, the 
personally superintended the experimental treatment and distillation of 
a large trial shipment sent to the Scotch Oil shale works near Edinburgh. 
An exhaustive monograph, published in 1910, and containing the re- 
sults of his investigations together with conclusions arrived at consti- 
tutes the recognized standard work on the subject of Canadian Bitumi- 
nous shales. It is owing to Dr. Ells’ work in this connection and to the 
persistent manner in which he sought to further the opening up of these 
mineralareas, that present active development may be largely attributed. 

The following, supplementary to the foregoing account of the 
scientific work of the late Dr. Ells, is from the pen of Professor Prince, 
Dominion Commissioner of Fisheries, Ottawa:— 
A scientific worker needs no biographer, it has been said, for his 
achievements tell their own tale, yet it seems appropriate, as it is cus- 
tomary, at the close of a career devoted to scientific pursuits, that some 
confrére should attempt to sum up and appraisethe labours that have 
come to anend. Nor is this all. We look for some delineation of the 
personality whose vacant place we mourn. For, apart from the pro- 
fessional aspect of a scientific man’s career, there is the personal aspect, 
the aspect which appeals tofriends, and to associates in other fields 
of scientific work. Of no Canadian scientific man whom we have lost 
in recent years is this more true than of Dr. Ells. Hisrecord asa geo- 
logist, of the first rank, fittingly falls to be told by a specialist in geo- 
logy. Yet may it not be permitted to one not a geologist, to write of 
