908 
of university teaching, and was continually 
urging the endowment of new chairs and 
the broadening of university work, so that 
all young men wishing to train themselves 
for the higher walks of life might in the 
university find their needs supplied. As 
an instance of this it may be mentioned 
that so far back as 1858 he succeeded in 
establishing a school of Civil Engineering, 
which after a severe-struggle for five years 
succumbed to some unfriendly legislation, 
only however to be revived by him in 1871 
and developed into the present Faculty of 
Applied Science of McGill University, with 
its numerous departments, its full staff of 
instructors and excellent equipment. Sir 
William, furthermore, never hesitated if 
funds were not forthcoming in sufficient 
amount for these purposes to subscribe large 
sums out of his own limited private means, 
and he was also the continual helper of 
needy students desiring to avail themselves 
of the university’s teaching. 
Sir William received the degree of M.A., 
from the University of Edinburgh, in 1856, 
and the degree of LL.D., from the same 
University in 1884. His attainments and 
the value of his contributions to science 
were widely recognized and he was elected 
an honorary or corresponding member of 
many learned societies on both sides of 
the Atlantic. He was made a Fellow of 
the Geological Society of London, in 1854 
and of the Royal Society in 1862. He was 
the first President of the Royal Society of 
Canada and has occupied the same position 
in the Geological Society of America and 
in both the American and British Associa- 
tions for the Advancement of Science. He 
was madea C. M. G., in 1883 and a Knight 
Bachelor in the following year. 
After a long life of continuous labor, 
Sir William’s health in 1892 became seri- 
ously impaired and it became necessary for 
him to lay aside his work for a time and 
go abroad. Failing to recover his strength, 
SCIENCE. 
[N. 8. Von, X. No. 260. 
however, he resigned his position as Princi- 
pal in June, 1893, and retired from active 
work. During the later years of his life 
his strength gradually ebbed away and 
what little work he could undertake con- 
sisted in arranging his collections and 
working up some unfinished papers. Sev- 
eral 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 at- 
tempted 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 19th of last month, very peace- 
fully and without pain. We may say, in 
the words of Dr. Peterson, 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 
conquerer. Rather has death been swal- 
lowed up in victory—the victory of a full 
and complete life, marked by earnest en- 
deavour, untiring industry, continuous de- 
votion and self-sacrifice, 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 
eye.” 
He leaves a widow and five children, of 
whom the eldest, Dr. George M. Dawson, 
the present Director of the Geological Sur- 
vey of Canada, has inherited his father’s 
taste for geological studies and has achieved 
wide distinction in the world of science. 
Sir William’s first original contribution 
to science was a paper read before the 
Wernerian Society of Edinburgh in 1841, 
on a species of field mouse found in Nova 
Scotia. From that time onward he was a 
