732 FRANK D. ADAMS 
an honorary or corresponding member of many learned societies 
on both sides of the Atlantic. He was madea Fellow of the 
Geological Society of London in 1854 and of the Royal Society 
in 1862. In 1882 he was invited by Lord Lorne to aid in the 
organization of the Royal Society of Canada as its first presi- 
dent. He was also President of the Geological Society of 
America and of both the American and British Associations 
for the Advancement of Science. In1884 he received the honor 
of knighthood. 
After a long life of continuous labor, Sir William's health, in 
1892, became seriously impaired, and it became necessary for him 
to lay aside his work for a time and spend a winter in the South. 
Failing to recover his strength, however, he resigned his posi- 
tion as principal in June 1893, and retired from active work. Dur- 
ing the later years of his life his strength gradually ebbed away, 
and what little work he could undertake consisted in arrang- 
ing his collections and working up some unfinished papers. 
Several of these were published in 1894 and 1895, but the years 
of quiet labor in his favorite pursuits, to which he looked for- 
ward at this time, were cut short by a series of sharp attacks, 
culminating in partial paralysis, which forbade further effort. 
During the last few years, from time to time, his strength rallied 
somewhat and he attempted to resume his work. Only a few 
days before his death he penned a short essay on the “‘ Gold of 
Ophir.” He passed away on the tgth of last month, very peace- 
fully and without pain. We may say, in the words of Dr. Peter- 
son, his successor in the principalship of the University, ‘‘ For 
such a painless passing out of life no note of sorrow need be 
struck. There is no sting in a death like his; the grave is not 
his conqueror. Rather has death been swallowed up in victory 
—the victory of a full and complete life, marked by earnest 
endeavor, untiring industry, continuous devotion and self-sacri- 
fice, together with an abiding and ever-present sense of depend- 
ence on the will of heaven. His work was done, to quote the 
great Puritan’s noble line, ‘As ever in his great Taskmaster’s 
» 9) 
eye. 
