906 
pupil.” On leaving school he studied at 
Pictou College and subsequently at the 
University of Edinburgh. While at the 
former seat of learning, at the age of 16, he 
read before the local Natural History So- 
ciety his first paper, having the somewhat 
ambitious title ‘On the Structure and His- 
tory of the Earth.’ He returned to Nova 
Scotia in 1847 and two years later went to 
Halifax to give a course of lectures on 
Natural History subjects in connection 
with Dalhousie College, and organized 
classes for practical work in mineralogy 
and paleontology. These were attended by 
students, citizens and pupils of higher 
schools, a foreshadowing of university ex- 
tension. In 1850, at the age of 30, having 
already attracted some attention by the 
publication of a number of papers, reports 
and lectures, he was appointed Superin- 
tendent of Education for Nova Scotia. 
From this time he became known in his 
native province as an indefatigable pro- 
moter of educational progress and a founder 
of educational institutions. His work in 
connection with this position obliged him 
to travel continually through all parts of 
the Province and on these journeys he ac- 
cumulated that immense mass of informa- 
tion concerning the geology and mineral 
resources of Nova Scotia which are incor- 
porated in his largest work—that entitled 
Acadian Geology. 
Sir Charles Lyell, in 1841, on his first 
visit to America, met Sir William and was 
by him conducted to many places of geolog- 
ical interest in Nova Scotia, and on his 
subsequent visit in 1852, they together con- 
tinued their studies in Nova Scotian Geol- 
ogy. Ina letter to Leonard Horner, dated 
September 12th of this year, Lyell writes: 
““My companion, J. W. Dawson, is con- 
tinually referring to the curious botanical 
points respecting calamites, endogenites 
and other coal plants, on which light is 
thrown by certain specimens collected by 
SCIENCE. 
[N. S. Vou. X. No. 260. 
him at Pictou. He told me that the root 
of the pond lily, Nymphea odorata most 
resembled Stigmaria in the regularity of its 
growth, and Dr. Robb showed me a dried 
specimen, a rhizoma, which being of a 
totally different family and therefore not 
strictly like, still suggests the probability 
of the Stigmaria having grown in slush in 
like manner.’’ And in another part of the 
same letter he, referring to the now cele- 
brated Joggings Section on the coast of 
Nova Scotia, says: ‘‘ Dawson and I set to 
work and measured foot by foot many hun- 
dred yards of the cliffs, where forests of 
erect trees and calamites most abound. It 
was hard work as the wind one day was 
stormy and we had to look sharp lest the 
rocking of living trees just ready to fall 
from the top of the undermined cliff should 
cause some of the old fossil ones to come 
down upon us by the run. But I never 
enjoyed the reading of a marvellous chapter 
of the big volume more. We missed a 
botanical aide-de-camp much when we came 
to the top and bottoms of calamites and all 
sorts of strange pranks which some of the 
compressed trees played.”’ 
About this time the governing body of 
McGill College, at Montreal, were looking 
about for some one fitted to assume the 
Principalship of the institution and to 
reorganize it. ‘ 
The College, founded by Royal Charter 
in 1821, had made but slow progress in its 
earlier years and was at this time, through 
litigation and other causes, almost in a 
state of collapse. Sir William—then Mr. 
Dawson—was pointed out to the Governors 
of the College by Sir Edmund Head, then 
Governor: General, of Canada, as a man who 
if his services could be secured was emi- 
nently fitted to undertake the task of recon- 
structing the University. In the meantime, 
ignorant of all this, he was prosecuting a 
candidature for the chair of Natural 
History in his Alma Mater, the University 
