DECEMBER 22, 1899. ] 
continuous contributor to scientific journals 
and to the publications of various learned 
societies. His papers were very numerous 
and covered a wide range of subjects in the 
domain of Natural History. The most im- 
portant work of his earlier years was an 
extended study of the geology of the eastern 
Maritime Provinces of the Dominion of 
Canada. His results are embodied in his 
Acadian Geology, already mentioned, a 
volume of nearly 1,000 pages, accompanied 
by a colored geological map of Nova Scotia, 
which has passed through four editions. In 
writing to Sir William in 1868, Sir Charles 
Lyell says of this work, ‘‘ I have been read- 
ing it steadily and with increased pleasure 
and profit. It isso full of original observa- 
tion and sound theoretical views that it 
must, I think, make its way and will cer- 
tainly be highly prized by the more ad- 
vanced scientific readers.’”’ It is the most 
complete account which we have of the 
geology of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick 
and Prince Edward’s Island, although since 
it appeared large portions of these provinces 
have been mapped in detail by the Geolog- 
ical Survey of Canada and Sir William’s 
conclusions modified in some particulars. 
In carrying out this work Sir William paid 
especial attention to the Paleontology of the 
Carboniferous system and to the whole 
question of the nature and mode of accumu- 
lation of coal. He subsequently studied 
the paleontology of the Devonian and Up- 
per Silurian Systems of Canada, discovering 
many new and important forms of plant life. 
In 1884 he began the study of the Creta- 
ceous and Tertiary fossil plants of Western 
Canada and published the first of a series 
of papers on the successive floras from the 
Lower Cretaceous onwards, which appeared 
in the Transactions of the Royal Society of 
Canada. He also contributed a volume 
entitled The Geological History of Plants 
to Appleton’s International Scientific Series. 
In 18638 he published his Air Breathers of 
SCIENCE. 
909 
the Coal Period, in which were collected 
the results of many years’ study in the fos- 
sil batrachians and the land animals of the 
coal measures of Nova Scotia. The earliest 
known remains of microsauria were then 
discovered by him in the interior of de- 
cayed tree stumps in the coal measures of 
South Joggings. The results of his later 
studies on these creatures were embodied 
in a series of subsequent papers which ap- 
peared from time to time. 
On taking up his residence in Montreal 
his attention was attracted to the remark- 
able development of the Pleistocene de- 
posits exposed in the vicinity of the city 
and he undertook a detailed study of them, 
and especially of the remarkably rich fossil 
fauna which they contain. He also studied 
subsequently the Pleistocene deposits of the 
Lower St. Lawrence and instituted com- 
parisons between them and the present 
fauna of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and of 
the Labrador coast. The results of these 
studies appeared in a series of papers as the 
work progressed and were finally embodied 
in a volume entitled The Canadian Ice Age, 
which was issued in 1893, as one of the 
publications of the Peter Redpath Museum 
of McGill University. This is one of the 
most important contributions to the pale- 
ontology of the pleistocene which has 
hitherto appeared. 
Sir William’s name is also associated with 
the renowned Eozoon Canadense, discov- 
ered by the Geological Survey of Canada in 
the Grenville limestones of the Canadian 
Laurentian and described by him in 1864 
as a gigantic foraminifer. Concerning this 
remarkable object there has been a wide- 
spread controversy and a great divergence 
of opinion. Some of the most experienced 
observers in the lower forms of life, such as 
Carpenter, accepted it as of organic origin, 
while others considered it to be inorganic. 
And while the balance of opinjon now pos- 
sibly favors the latter view, its resemblance 
