THE 
AMERICAN GEOLOGIST. 
Vol. XXVIII. AUGUST, 1901. No. 2. 
GEORGE MERCER DAWSON. 
PORTRAIT. 
The widespread expressions of deep regret and personal 
loss following the death of Dr. G. M. Dawson show that his 
was no ordinary life. Called away while in his prime, and 
with a past which gave promise of great achievements 
yet to come, he has left a blank which will not soon be filled. 
Dr. Dawson was the second son of the late Sir J. W Daw- 
son, and was born on the ist of August, 1849. in Pictou, Nova 
Scotia. In 1855 his father, who had for some years been act- 
ing as Superintendent of Education for Nova Scotia, received 
the appointment of principal of McGill University, Montreal, 
and with his family took up his residence there. Instead of 
the magnificent structures of to-day there were then on the 
college gounds only two "unfinished and partly ruinous build- 
ings, standing amid a wilderness of excavators' and masons'^ 
rubbish, over-grown with weeds and bushes. The grounds 
were unfenced and pastured at will by herds of cattle, which 
not only cropped the grass, but browsed on the shrubs, leaving 
unhurt only one great elm, which still stands as the 'founder's 
tree,' and a few old oaks and butternut trees."* Surroundings- 
of this kind were not ideal from a university point of view, but 
made a delightful environment for an intelligent boy. The 
numerous wild flowers, the birds' nests, the fossil shells in the 
blue clay, the waste waterway where leaves and twigs became 
"petrifactions," the lively brook where mimic fleets could be 
navigated and dams constructed — these and many other ob- 
*Fifty years of work in Canada— Autobiographical notes by Sir Wilt-iam 
Dawson, p. 98. 
