DAWSON, SIR JOHN WILLIAM Cana dian geologist, was born at Pictou, Nova Scotia, on Oct. 3o, 182o. He was educated at Edinburgh, Scotland, and on his return to Nova Scotia in 1842 he accompanied Sir Charles Lyell on his first visit to that territory. He was superintendent of education (1850 53) ; at the same time he studied the geology of the country, mak ing a special investigation of the fossil forests of the coal measures. From these strata, in company with Lyell (during his second visit) in 1852, he obtained the first remains of an "air breathing reptile" named Dendrerpeton. He also described the fossil plants of the Silurian, Devonian and Carboniferous rocks of Canada for the Geological Survey of that country (1871-73). From 1855 to 1893 he was professor of geology and principal of M'Gill university, Montreal. He was elected F.R.S. in 1862 ; and knighted in 1884. Dawson published, besides other works, Acadian Geology: The geological structure, organic remains and mineral resources of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island (1855; ed. 3, 1878); Air-breathers of the Coal Period (1863). He died on Nov. 20, 1899.
His son, GEORGE MERCER DAWSON was born at Pictou on Aug. 1, 1849, and received his education at M'Gill University and the Royal School of Mines, London. In 1873 he was appointed geologist and naturalist to the North American boundary commission, and two years later he joined the staff of the geological survey of Canada, of which he became assistant director in 1883, and director in 1895. He was in charge of the Canadian government's Yukon expedition in 1887, and his name is commemorated in Dawson City, of gold-bearing fame. He was one of the Bering Sea Commissioners in 1891. He was elected F.R.S. in 1891, and was president of the Royal Society of Canada in 1893. He died on March 2, 1901. He was the author of many scientific papers and reports on the surface geology and glacial phenomena of the northern and western pal is of Canada.