George Mercer Dawson. 415 



At the age of eighteen, Dawson entered McGill 



College as a partial student, attending lectures on 



English, chemistiy, geology, etc., during the session of 



1868-9. T\'hile a student at this time, he wrote a poem 



on Jacques Cartier which, while but a boyish effort, 



was thought very well of by his instructors and gave 



evidence of his keen love of nature and poetic instinct. 



The view from the summit of Mount Royal, whither 



Cartier was conducted by the red men of Hochelaga, 



is thus described : 



" Far on the western river lay, 

 Like molten gold, the dying day. 

 Far to the east the waters glide 

 Till lost in twilight's swelling tide ; 

 While all around, on either hand, 

 Spread the broad, silent, tree-clad land ; 

 And in the distance far and blue 

 Long swelling mountains close the view." 



The following year, Dawson went to London and 

 entered the Royal School of Mines, at that tirae on 

 Jermyn street. He was fond of the sea, and on this 

 occasion made the passage in a sailing ship, he and 

 another young man being the only passengers. Daring 

 the voyage, he amused himself making observations on 

 the surface life of the ocean, and the phenomen.a of 

 phosphorescence. He also studied navigation, under 

 tlie direction of the captain, and the knowledge then 

 acquired afterward stood him in good stead when he 

 had to navigate a schooner along the dangerous coast 

 of British Columbia and the Queen Charlotte Islands. 



At the School of Mines, he took the full course of 



study, extending over three years, and passed as an 



- associate. At the end of his second year, he carried off 



the Duke of Cornwall's scholarship, given by the 



Prince of "Wales, and on graduation stood first in his 



