lectures on natural history and geology in the Pictou Academy, and in Dalhousie College, Halifax, and reported to the Nova Scotia Government on the coal-fields of Southern Cape Breton.
In 1852, in company with Sir Charles Lyell, he-made a reëxamination of the Joggins section, and visited the remarkable deposit of Albertite at Hillsborough, New Brunswick. A paper soon appeared on the Joggins section, giving a more fall exposition than any previous one of the structure and mode of formation of a coal-field. The Albert Mine was also made the subject of a paper. In the further study of the Joggins section, microscopic examinations were made of coal from all its beds, as well as of coal from other sources, the results being published in papers on the "Structures in Coal," and on the "Mode of Accumulation of Coal."
It was during the visit to the Joggins, just referred to, that the remains of Dendrerpeton Acadianum and Pupa vetusta were found. With the exception of Baphetes planiceps which Dr. Dawson had discovered the year previous at Pictou, but not described, Dendrerpeton Acadianum was the first reptile found in the coal formation of America, while Pupa vetusta was the first known Palæozoic land-snail. These discoveries were followed by the finding and describing of several other reptiles, and of the first carboniferous millipede [Xylobius sigillariæ). About this time, also, a second report on the Acadia mines was prepared, and an elaborate series of assays of coal made for the General Mining Association.
In 1855 he published the first edition of his "Acadian Geology." In 1856, though now trammeled by the arduous duties incumbent upon the principal of a university, he still continued his geological work in his native province, and prepared a description of the Silurian and Devonian rocks. During the same summer he visited Lake Superior, and wrote a paper and report on the copper-regions of Mamainse and Georgian Bay.
In the two following years he made a number of contributions to the Canadian Naturalist and the Journal of the Geological Society, and commenced the study of the Post-pliocene deposits of Canada. In 1859 his "Archaia," or studies of creation in Genesis, appeared, a work showing not only a thorough knowledge of natural history, but also considerable familiarity with the Hebrew language.
In 1860 Dr. Dawson issued a supplementary chapter to his "Acadian Geology." He also continued his work in fossil botany, and in the Post-pliocene, publishing several papers on these subjects, as well as desultory researches on such subjects as the "Flora of Mount Washington," "Indian Antiquities at Montreal," "Marine Animals of the St. Lawrence," "Earthquakes in Canada," "Classification of Animals," etc.
In 1863 he issued his "Air-Breathers of the Coal Formation," a complete account of the fossil reptiles and other land animals of the
