498 ' PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROCHESTER MEETING 



there. At the age of ten Dawson entered the Montreal high school, 

 where he remained for one year, taking a high place among the boys of 

 his class. There were, however, at that time, near what is now the center 

 of the city of Montreal, a number of ponds on which the boys from the 

 High School used to go rafting at lunch hour. On one of these occasions 

 he received a drenching, and remaining in his damp clothes through the 

 afternoon received a chill, which led to spinal trouble, resulting in years 

 of suffering and final deformity. He consequently left school and his 

 education, until he was old enough to enter college, was carried on chiefty 

 under private tutors. In this way, while not neglecting the ordinary 

 subjects of a school curriculum, he was allowed to follow out lines of 

 stud} 7, in which he found a particular interest and learned many things 

 which were later of the greatest value to him. One who knew him well 

 at that time says : 



" He seemed to absorb knowledge rather than to study, and every new fact or 

 idea acquired was at once put into its place and proper relations in his orderly 

 mind. He was always cheerful, amusing, and popular, other boys flocking round 

 him and invariably submitting to his unconscious leadership." 



At the age of eighteen, having recovered his health, he entered McGill 

 University, where he studied during the session of 1868-'69, and in the 

 following year went to London and entered the Royal School of Mines. 

 His passage to England was made in a sailing ship for the benefit of the 

 longer voyage, and on the way over he amused himself by studying 

 navigation under the captain. Years later, when he chartered a schooner 

 in order to make an examination of the Queen Charlotte islands, the 

 captain of the schooner proving to be unsatisfactory was dismissed and 

 Dawson navigated the vessel himself during the remainder of the trip 

 and this on a deeply indented and dangerous coast, of which at that 

 time no chart existed. 



At the Royal School of Mines he took the full course of study, ex- 

 tending over three years, and graduated as an Associate. At the end of 

 his second year he received the Duke of Cornwall's scholarship, given 

 by the Prince of Wales, and on graduation stood first in his class, ob- 

 taining the Edward Forbes medal and prize in paleontology and natural 

 history and the Murchison medal in geology. While at the Royal 

 School of Mines he paid especial attention to the study of geology and 

 paleontology, under Ramsay, Huxley, and Etheridge, and also devoted 

 much time to the study of chemistry and metallurgy, in the laboratories 

 of Frankland and Percy. Even in his holidays he was never altogether 

 idle, and during most of the summer of 1871 he was attached to the 

 British Geological Survey and worked with the late J. Clifton Ward in 



