Georg-e Mercer Dawson. 417 



Garrv, now the fast-growing city of AYinnipeg, with 

 more than 40,000 inhabitants, was then practically the 

 last outpost of civilization, and the great prairies had 

 to be traversed on horseback or on foot, provisions and 

 equipments of every kind being carried in Red river 

 carts, drawn by oxen or ponies, with shaganappy 

 harness. The two years of Dawson's connection with 

 the Boundary Commission were for him years of inces- 

 sant activity, but the results of his work were of great 

 scientific value. They were embodied in a report 

 addressed to the head of the commission, major (now 

 general) D. R. Cameron, R.A., and published in 

 Montreal in 1875. '^^ The volume, which is now 

 looked upon as '' one of the classics of Canadian 

 geology," is a model of what such reports should be 

 — scientific facts being clearly and succinctly stated 

 and the conclusions logically drawn. The main geo- 

 logical result arrived at was the examination and 

 description of a section over 800 miles in length across 

 the central region of the continent, which had been 

 previously touched upon at a few points only, and in 

 the vicinity of which a space of over 300 miles in 

 longitude had remained even geographically unknown. 

 The report discussed not merely the physical and 

 general geology of the region, and the more detailed 

 characteristics of the various geological formations, 

 but also the capabilities of the country with reference 

 to settlement. The whole edition was long ago 

 distributed, and the volume is now exceedingly scarce 

 and difiicult to obtain. While attached to the Bound- 

 ary Commission, Dawson made large collections of 



* Report on the Geology and Resources of the Region in the vicinity 

 of the Forty-ninth Parallel, from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky 

 Mountains, with Lists of Plant? andAnimals collected and Notes on the 

 Fossils. 



