340 



NATURE 



[February 13, 11,02 



with instructions to his son to have it published as early 

 as might be practicable after his death. Dr. Rankine 

 Dawson has accordingly fulfilled the charge committed 

 to him, and the result is a little volume entitled " Fifty 

 years of Work in Canada, Scientific and Educational." 



To those who were privileged with Sir William's 

 friendship or acquaintance, the autobiography will recall 

 many of the traits of his character, many little touches of 

 manner and expression, and many of the moods of 

 thought which showed themselves in his familiar talk. 

 But to those who knew him not, the book will hardly 

 reveal what manner of man he really was. Its readers 

 will learn from it, indeed, that he must have been an en- 

 thusiastic student of nature, an upright and earnest and 

 indefatigable teacher, an evidently kindly and genial man 

 who with infinite patience and perseverance, and ob- 

 viously with consummate tact and skill, fought and won 

 the battle of higher education, for women as well as for 

 men, in a colony where everything had to be begun from 

 the beginning, and where the hindrances and opposition 

 might have daunted a braver pioneer. It traces his life 

 in outline from his boyhood at Pictou in Nova Scotia to 

 his final retirement in the cottage at Little Metis, where, 

 after a slight paralytic seizure in 1897, he quietly waited 

 for the end. But it is no more than an outline, and 

 though interesting as being his own account of himself, 

 it is scarcely adequate as a lasting and final memorial of 

 one who well deserves to be had in remembrance for his 

 services to the geology and educational progress of 

 Canada. Having been delayed till almost the end of his 

 life, the autobiography lacks the freshness and fulness of 

 recent recollection. Sir William met with many interesting 

 and notable men in his time of whom one would fain have 

 had his impressions — such pen-portraits as he probably 

 gave in letters to his friends or family. One would like to 

 know something more of his boyhood and the influences 

 that drew him into the geological field. In a new country, 

 before the days of railroads and coasting steamers, geo- 

 logical expeditions must often have brought a man into 

 strange experiences. Then in regard to educational 

 effort, which lay so close to Sir William's heart and to 

 which he devoted so large a part of his strenuous life, he 

 gives just information enough to make us long for more, 

 that would fill in the details of an interesting struggle of 

 which merely a sketch is given in the book. His pub" 

 lished addresses and reports enable us to trace the general 

 progress of his eflTorts, but naturally they lack the 

 personal element, and the ordinary reader may sometimes 

 fail to realise how much of the advance they chronicle was 

 due to the initiation and persistent energy of the principal 

 of McGill College himself. 



Sir William Dawson's original contributions to science 

 range over a considerable field, but the most important 

 of them (leal mainly with two departments of geology. 

 He has done more than any other writer to make known 

 the characters and the richness of the vegetation that 

 preceded the luxuriant flora of the Carboniferous period. 

 He speaks regretfully of the refusal of the council of our 

 Royal Society to publish a paper and illustrations which 

 he had prepared on the plants of the Old Red Sandstone, 

 "thereby losing the credit of giving to the world the 

 largest contribution made in our time to the flora of the 

 period before the Carboniferous age." He adds that 

 NO. 1685, VOL. 65] 



"a work which had cost me a large amount of time, 

 labour and expense, and which I had looked upon as my 

 magnuiit opus, was not adequately published and probably 

 never will be." 



The other branch of geological inquiry which Sir 

 William prosecuted with characteristic energy related to 

 the glacial deposits of Canada. After publishing a series 

 of papers on the subject, he gathered up his results in 

 more connected and popular form and published them 

 in 1894 in his volume on "The Canadian Ice-Age. " 

 While glacialists have not generally accepted some of 

 his views of the succession of events, they must acknow- 

 ledge that recognition is due to the pioneer work by 

 which the facts were first collected and arranged. 



Allusion may be made here to another scientific 

 question to which Dawson devoted a great deal of time 

 and thought, though comparatively little reference to the 

 subject occurs in the present volume. His name will 

 always be associated with those of Logan and Carpenter 

 in connection with the Eozoon Canadcnsi- of the Laurentian 

 limestone. They regarded it as the earliest known trace 

 of animal life, and as probably belonging to the 

 foraminifera. Eventually their views were criticised and 

 opposed, until now the prevailing opinion is adverse to 

 the organic grade of the supposed fossil, but the principal 

 of McGill College appears to have maintained his 

 position to the end. 



Sir William Dawson was an eminently religious man 

 and a Christian of the most orthodox Presbyterian type. 

 Though naturally peaceful, he was always ready to lay 

 lance in rest and have a lilt with some adversary of his 

 faith. He never accepted Darwinism. Three months 

 after the appearance of the " Origin of Species " he pub- 

 lished his first criticism of the modern doctrine of 

 evolution. From that time, in articles, addresses and 

 books, he continued to express more or less forcibly his 

 dissent. The year before his death he summed up " The 

 Case against Evolution,'' and in the autobiography which 

 occupied his last days there are occasional indications 

 of his unabated opposition to the opinions "as to the 

 great instability of species, which have been so current 

 among the leaders of the Darwinian evolution." His 

 more popular volumes have had a w'ide circulation and 

 have been of service in spreading an interest in geology 

 and geological speculation. 



The autobiography indicates in general terms that its 

 author led a busy life, but no reader will gather from it 

 an adequate idea of the extraordinary activity of that life. 

 Even the ample list of separate papers which appears in 

 the Catalogue of the Royal Society indicates only one side 

 of his work. To that list must be added a voluminous 

 series of lectures and papers on a wide range of 

 educational, theological and other subjects, and quite a 

 small library of separate books. And all this literary 

 industry went on amid the incessant calls of an onerous 

 official position. We trust that the autobiography may 

 soon reach a second edition, and that advantage will then 

 be taken of the opportunity to add such information as 

 will hand down a fuller picture of the life and work of the 

 late principal. A selection from his letters would be a 

 welcome addition to the volume, likewise a list of his 

 publications arranged year by year. Such a list, prepared 

 by Dr. H. M. Ami, one of Dawson's pupils and a member 



