JO The American Geologist. Aii^ust, moi 
with more than 40,000 inhabitants, was then practically the last 
outpost of civilization, and the great prairies had to be trav- 
ersed on horseback or on foot, provisions and equipments of 
every kind being carried in Red river carts, drawn by oxen 
or ponies, with shaganappy harness. The two years of Daw- 
son's connection with the Boundary Commission were for him 
years of incessant activity, but the results of his work were of 
great scientific value. They were embodied in a report ad- 
dressed to the head of the conunission, major (now general) 
D. R. Cameron, R. A., and published in Montreal in 1875.* 
The 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 geological result ar- 
rived 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 vtpon at a few points only, 
and in the vicinity of which a space of over 300 miles in longi- 
tude had remained even geographically 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 was long ago 
distributed, and the volume is now exceedingly scarce and dif- 
ficult 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 Kevv and elsewhere. The Brit- 
ish Museum obtained no less than seventeen species of mam- 
mals not previously represented in its collections. 
More or less in connection with the above work were pub- 
lished papers on the "Lignite Formations of the West," tine 
"Occurrence of Foraminifera, Coccoliths, &c., in the Cretaceous 
Rocks of Manitoba," on "Some Canadian species of Spongil- 
lae," on the "Superficial Geology of the Central Region of North 
America," on the "Locust Invasion of 1874 in Manitoba and 
the Northwest Territories," &c. 
When the work of the Boundary Commission was brought to 
a close, Dawson received an appointment on the staff of the Geo- 
•Report on the Geology and Resources of the Region in the vicinity of the 
Forty-ninth Parallel, from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains, 
with lists of Plants and Animals collected and notes on the Fossils. 
