18 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SAINT LOUIS MEETING 



health's sake Cairnes took up outdoor work and for several years was 

 engaged in prospecting. 



Becoming interested in the study of geology through association with 

 prospectors and mining men, he decided to pursue his studies further, 

 and with that object entered the School of Mining at Kingston in 1901 

 to take the course in Mining Engineering. Of his work at the School of 

 Mining, Prof. M. B. Baker writes : 



"In the meantime I liad graduated and was lecturing in geology at this insti 

 tution. I was therefore greatly surprised to see my old schoolmate in my 

 classes, but I had no doubt of the results, for in Stratford he almost invariably 

 led the classes. I was not surprised, however, to find that at the end of his 

 first year in the School of JNIining he had passed everything with flying colors 

 and won the Chancellor's prize for the students obtaining the highest average 

 on all the examinations of the first year. Cairnes kei)t up this record through- 

 out his whole course, at the end of which he had actually maintained the 

 standard of 80 per cent on all the work of the whole four years — a record that 

 I do not believe has been equalled at this university. While taking his post- 

 graduate course at Yale, the Dean of the Graduates School wrote me com- 

 menting on Cairnes' excellent preparation." 



In May, 1905, Cairnes was appointed to the staff of the Canadian Geo- 

 logical Survey and did his first important piece of field-work that year in 

 the foothills of the Eocky Mountains, west of Calgary. In the field season 

 of 1906 he worked in the southern Yukon, and for the next ten years he 

 spent every season in that territory. 



After three years of field experience, his ambition to reach the highest 

 rank in the geological profession compelled him to take up post-graduate 

 work, and with this object he spent the winter of 1907-1908 in study at 

 the Royal School of Mines, Freiberg, Saxon}^ and the succeeding winter 

 at Heidelberg University, Germany. He completed his postgraduate 

 work by obtaining the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Geology from 

 Yale University in 1910. 



In October, 1907, he married Florence Mary, daughter of Dr. T. M. 

 and Mary Fenwick, of Kingston, Ontario, who, however, predeceased him 

 in November, 1911, after seven years of married life. 



Besides being a Fellow of the Geological Society of America, Cairnes 

 was a life member of the Freiberg Geologische Gesellschaft, a member of 

 the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and of the 

 Canadian Mining Institute, and to the publications of these societies he 

 was a frequent contributor. His most important work, however, was done 

 for the Canadian Geological Survey in Yukon Territory, where he spent 

 the last eleven summers of his life in studying the geology and mineral 



