148 Canadian Record of Science. 



singleness of purpose. His loss will be felt especially in 

 the Institution with which he was long connected, but his 

 name has been perpetuated in connection with the geo- 

 logical department of his University by the establishment 

 of a second chair in geology, to be known as the Dawson 

 Chair, which lias just been endowed in his memory by 

 Sir William Macdonald. 



The following letter will be read with interest, as the 

 last communication to the ISTatural History Society of 

 Montreal, made by the late Sir William Dawson. It 

 shows the high regard in which he held the Society and 

 the value he attached to its work. It may be counted his 

 dying testimony to the importance to Montreal of such an 

 institution and a call to the citizens to rally around it and 

 .secure its prosperity. Sir William's last spoken word to 

 the friends of the Society, on the occasion of the conver- 

 sazione held under the auspices of the late Governor- 

 General, the Earl of Aberdeen, was by way of advocating 

 the creation of a small endowment fund for the Society, a 

 beginning of which has since been made and which it will 

 be the continued aim of the Society to raise : — 



Little Metis, June 17, 1899. 



" My Deae Sir, — I beg to thank you, and through you 

 the Xatural History Society, for your kind communication 

 of the 9th, and for the honor the Society has again con- 

 ferred on me. I deeply regret that illness prevented me 

 from taking an active part in the work of the Society^ 

 and from enjoying the pleasure of personal association 

 with its members. Should it please God to restore my 

 strength sufficiently it will give me much pleasure to con- 

 tribute what I can to its work. I have, however, at pre- 

 sent little expectation of this. 



" I rejoice to see from the report of the annual meeting 

 that the Society continues to grow in public estimation, 



