MEMORIAL OF WILLIAM JOHN SUTTON 35 



ruary 23-26, 1914 ; contains statements of J. A. Holmes, Director of Bu- 

 reau of Mines, with an abstract of all bills on opening of coal lands in 

 Alaska. Washington, D. C, Government Printing Office, 1914, part 2, 

 267 pages. 

 75. United States Navy Department. Report on coal in Alaska for use in 

 United States Navy. Report of survey' and investigation by experi- 

 mental tests of coal in Alaska, etcetera ; contains general statement by 

 J. A. Holmes, Director of Bureau of Mines. House Document 876, Sixty- 

 third Congress, second session, 1914, 123 pages. 



MEMORIAL OF WILLTAM JOHN SUTTON 

 BY WILLIAM FLEET ROBERTSON ] 



William John Sutton was born in Kincardine, Ontario, on January 19, 

 1859. 



His earlier education was acquired in the public schools of Walkerton, 

 Ontario, and later at Trinity College School, Port Hope, Ontario. This 

 was followed by special courses in geology and assaying at Cornell and 

 the Columbia School of Mines. 



In 1887 Mr. Sutton moved to British Columbia on the first flood of the 

 "to the West" movement created by the completion of the Canadian Pa- 

 cific Eailway. Settling in Victoria, he was very shortly after appointed 

 the official government assayer, which position he held for some two years. 



The report of the Minister of Mines of British Columbia for the year 

 1888 contains Mr. Sutton's first published report, "A description of the 

 mineral resources of the province" and "List of economic minerals found 

 in the province." 



In those earlier days in British Columbia, although placer gold mining 

 had been extensively developed in the interior and coal mining was in 

 operation on the seaboard of Vancouver Island, lode mining had hardly 

 gained even a foothold and the work was in the hands of "practical" men, 

 who, it is more than suspected, classed geologists, chemists, and j^oets 

 together as purely "ornamental frills," to be respected individually, but of 

 little economic value. 



Finding scant financial encouragement in his chosen work, Mr. Sutton, 

 like most of the earlier pioneers, not having "come West for his health," 

 felt obliged to resign from his position as government assayer and en- 

 tered the lumber business, subsequently securing large tracts of timber 

 and land. 



Having thus acquired some little competency, his love for his earlier 

 studies in geology and mineralogy again asserted itself, and feeling the 



1 Written by Mr. Robertson at the request of Dr. R. W. Brock. 



