MEMOIR OF GEORGE M. DAWSON 499 



the Cumberland Lake district. Returning to Canada in 1872, he was 

 engaged for some months in examining and reporting upon mineral 

 properties in Nova Scotia, and subsequently went to Quebec, where he 

 delivered a course of lectures on chemistry at Morrin College, which was 

 attended by a large and appreciative class. 



In 1873 he was appointed Geologist and Botanist to Her Majesty's 

 North American Boundary Commission, which had been constituted to 

 fix the boundary line between British North America and the United 

 States from the lake of the Woods to the Rocky mountains, and which 

 had then been at work for over a year. There are but few corners of the 

 earth which now appear so far off as did the great Northwest at that 

 time — a veritable terra incognita. Fort Garry, now the city of Winnipeg, 

 was the last outpost of civilization, and the party had to travel on horse- 

 back or on foot, the provisions and equipment being transported in Red 

 River carts. 



. During the two years in which he was a member of the Boundary 

 Commission, he accumulated materials for his elaborate and very valu- 

 able " Report of the geology and resources of the country in the 

 vicinity of the 49th parallel," accompanied by maps and many illus- 

 trations, which was published in Montreal in 1875. This 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 on at a few points only, and in the vicinity 

 of which a space of over 300 miles in longitude had remained even geo- 

 graphically 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 has been long 

 since distributed, and the volume is now exceedingly scarce and difficult 

 to obtain. While attached to the Boundary Commission, Dawson made 

 large collections of natural history specimens, which were forwarded to 

 England and found a home in the British Museum, as well as at Kew 

 and elsewhere. The British Museum obtained no less than seventeen 

 species of mammals not previously represented in its collections. 



In connection with this work he also prepared a " Report on the Ter- 

 tiary lignite formation in the vicinity of the forty-ninth parallel," as 

 well as papers on the " Superficial geology of the central regions of 

 North America," the " Marine Champlain deposits on lands north of 

 lake Superior," " The fluctuations of the American lakes and the develop - 



LXXII— Bun. Geot,. Soc. Am., Vol. 13, 1901 



