Sio^ J. W. Daivson. 139 



places of geological interest in Nova Scotia, and on his 

 subsequent visit in 1852 they together continued their 

 studies in Nova Scotian Geology. 



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 

 re-organize it. 



The College, founded by lioyal 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 eminently 

 fitted to undertake the task of reconstructing 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 of Edinburgh, 

 rendered vacant by the death of Professor Edward Forbes, 

 and in which he was strongly supported by the leading 

 geologists of the time. By a strange coincidence, just as 

 he was about to leave Halifax for England in connection 

 with this candidature, intelligence arrived that the 

 Edinburgh chair had been filled at an earlier date than 

 his friends had anticipated, and at the same time a letter 

 was received offering him the Principalship of McGill. 



The services of Mr. Dawson were accordingly secured, 

 and in 1855 he assumed the Principalship of McGill 

 College, stipulating at the same time that the chair of 

 Natural History should be assigned to him. 



Sir M^'illiam Logan, in a letter to his brother, James 

 Logan, dated November 29th, 1855, writes as follows : — 

 " I see by the newspapers that my friend, Mr. Dawson, has 

 been regularly installed as Principal of McGill College. 

 He will be a support to the Survey, for he is really a man 

 of science." 



