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Notes on the geology and fossil flora of Prince Edward Island
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1 booklet
Francis Bain was born on February 25, 1842, in North River, Prince Edward Island.
He was a self-educated farmer, geologist, ornithologist, botanist, author, and artist. As a boy, he was fond of reading and developed a liking for natural science. After the death of his older brother in 1862, the family farm became his sole responsibility, with formal schooling curtailed, but Bain continued studies of classics, mathematics, French, and German on his own. In the 1860s, he began travelling all over the Island to pursue his interest in natural science. He considered himself foremost a geologist. He mapped the province’s bedrock and collected, illustrated, described, and identified many fossils. He also discovered a species of fossil fern on PEI that Sir William Dawson subsequently named Tylodendron baini. In 1892, he was commissioned by the federal government to investigate the feasibility of constructing a submarine tunnel from PEI to New Brunswick. Bain’s enthusiasm to share his learning led him to engage in extensive writing and lecturing. Between 1881 and 1893, he published over twenty scientific papers and two books, “The Natural History of Prince Edward Island” (1890) and “Birds of Prince Edward Island, Their Habits and Characteristics” (1891). He also published over fifty natural science articles in a half-dozen Canadian and American scientific journals. His articles included lists and records of birds, shells, plants, butterflies, fossils, and geological formations. His career as a public speaker on botany, geology, and the proposed tunnel to New Brunswick, often illustrated with his drawings, began about 1885. Bain's knowledge and understanding of natural science mark him as the first Islander to whom the contemporary term ecologist can appropriately be applied.
In 1875, he married Caroline Matilda Clark (1852–1913). He died on November 20, 1894, in North River, Prince Edward Island.
William Dawson, geologist, educator and Principal of McGill University (1855-1893) was an important scientific figure in nineteenth-century Canada, and one of the few of truly international stature. Born and educated in Pictou, Nova Scotia, he early showed a predilection for geology and palaeontology, and began collecting fossil plants from the coal fields in the Pictou area. During a period of study in Edinburgh in 1840-1841, he formed important friendships with Sir Charles Lyell, one of the pioneers of modern geology and with William Logan, shortly to become the first director of the Geological Survey of Canada. On his return to Nova Scotia, he began to publish and lecture on scientific topics. An appointment as Nova Scotia's first Superintendent of Education (1850-1853) entailed the extensive travel which enabled him to gather material for his Acadian Geology. In 1854, in the midst of his unsuccessful application for the chair of Natural History at Edinburgh, Dawson was offered the Principalship of McGill. He found the University on the verge of financial collapse. By a combination of scientific and entrepreneurial talents, he established it on a very sound footing and stamped it with a particularly scientific character. As a scientific educator, Dawson was highly progressive, and introduced a wide range of subjects into the undergraduate curriculum. His belief in the alliance of scientific and commercial concerns, seconded by the financial support of Sir William Macdonald, launched McGill's innovative programmes in applied sciences. However, on the question of the higher education of women, his stance against co-education generated much controversy. In his early years at McGill, Dawson taught almost all the sciences; later, as Logan Professor, he could concentrate on his main fields of geology and palaeontology. His early researches in the Maritimes leaned towards palaeobotany, but were also closely connected with iron and coal mining. Following the move to Montréal, his interests shifted to the Laurentian region and fossil fauna; he was deeply embroiled in the controversy over Eozoon canadense, whose zoological origins he championed. Apart from his extensive scholarly writings, Dawson published many popular works, particularly on the relations of science and religion. He himself was deeply fundamentalist and a vigorous opponent of Darwinism. As time passed, Dawson's research yielded to his involvement in scientific administration. He was the first president of the Royal Society of Canada (1882), the first to serve as president of both the American (1882-3) and the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1886), and a fellow of numerous other learned societies. He was knighted in 1884, following the Montréal meeting of the BAAS which he organized. Dawson married a young Margaret Ann Young Mercer, whom he met in Scotland and brought over to Canada, in 1848. The couple had six children, with five surviving to adulthood.
Published paper, “Notes on the geology and fossil flora of Prince Edward Island” by Francis Bain and Sir William Dawson, published in the Canadian Record of Science, vol. 1, no. 3, July 1885.