SKETCHES OF DECEASED PRESIDENTS. PIERS. Ixxxiii 



formerly of Vicar's Hill, Hants, England, who afterwards 

 retired to Annapolis, N. S.; died at Annapolis, 12th March, 

 1892. He graduated from Trinity College, Providence, 

 R. I., and took a course of medicine in England, afterwards 

 practising at Annapolis, and spending his leisure in the study 

 of the animal life of the western part of the province. In 

 1846 he moved to Halifax where he resided for forty years, 

 and then returned to Annapolis where after a period passed 

 in retirement from all mental activities he passed away in 

 1892. He was an original member of the Institute of Natural 

 Science, and with his friend Jones was one of those who 

 took the most active part in its organization, and his paper 

 on the herring was the first read before it and published in 

 its Transactions. He served as vice-president, and suc- 

 ceeded as the third president on 8th October, 1873, holding 

 office for five years, till 9th October, 1878. He was the 

 society's most prolific writer of the period, his papers, 

 which were long, numbering 24; but some of them being in 

 several parts, 34 would convey a more correct idea of the 

 number of his writings. Dr. Honeyman was the only one 

 who surpassed him in the number of his contributions. 

 Gilpin was a zoologist primarily,* and his papers deal with 

 the mammals, food fishes, wild fowl, the eagles, and our 

 Indians and their remains, and his article on Sable Island 

 is still much referred to. His monographs on our mammals, 

 with full descriptions of their habits, are still, although 

 somewhat out of date, the chief source of information on 

 the subject. Altogether he was probably the best student 

 of the higher animals we have had. He possessed a racey, 

 picturesque and attractive literary style, coupled with close 

 accuracy in his statements and determinations. Further- 

 more he was a good draughtsman, wielding a ready pencil 

 and brush, which assisted in illustrating his lectures. In 



*William Gossip says he was well known in British America and the United States as the 

 Nova Scotian Zoologist (Trans, vi,, p. 158). 



