138 Canadian Record of Science. 



a leading business house in Pictou, and on the termination 

 of his engagement began business there on his own 

 account. 



While still at school in Pictou, at the age of 12, he 

 developed a love for Natural Science, inherited from his 

 father, and made large collections of fossil plants from the 

 Nova Scotia coal measures, so well exposed about his 

 native place. He speaks of himself at the time as being 

 a " moderately diligent but not a specially brilliant pupil." 

 On leaving school he studied at Pictou Academy, and sub- 

 sequently at the University of Edinburgh. While at the 

 former seat of learning, at the age^ of 16, he read before 

 the local Natural History Society his first paper, having 

 the somewhat ambitious title " On the Structure and 

 History 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 connec- 

 tion with Dalhousie College, and organized classes for 

 practical work in mineralogy and palaeontology. These 

 were attended by students, citizens and pupils of higher 

 schools, a foreshadowing of university extension. 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 Superintendent of 

 Education for Nova Scotia. From this time he be- 

 came known in his native province as an indefati- 

 gable promoter of educational progress and a founder 

 of educational institutions. His work in connec- 

 tion with this position obliged him to travel con- 

 tinually through all parts of the Province, and on these 

 journeys he accumulated that immense mass of informa- 

 tion concerning the geology and mineral resources of 

 Nova Scotia, which are incorporated 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 



