George Mercer Dawson

George Mercer Dawson ( born August 1, 1849 in Pictou, Nova Scotia, † March 2, 1901 in Ottawa ) was a Canadian geographer, surveyor and paleontologist.

Life

George Mercer Dawson was the son of Sir John William Dawson (1820-1899), the head of the McGill University. At the age of eleven he became ill with tuberculosis of the spine ( Pott 's disease Gibbus ), which deformed his back and his body growth was inhibited.

During his lengthy recovery period, he received instruction from his father and tutors. Later he attended the High School of Montreal and McGill University ( part-time). Then he moved to London to study in 1869 at the Royal School of Mines (now part of Imperial College London) Geology and paleontology. After three years he graduated with outstanding results. 1890 Dawson reached a LL.D. degree ( Doctor of Law ) from Queen's University in Kingston, 1891 also at McGill University.

In the 1870s, Dawson made ​​a career as a professor of chemistry at the Morrin College in Quebec City. In the subsequent period, he led extensive surveys in western Canada by starting with the International Boundary Survey ( International Boundary Survey ) 1872-1876. His 387 -page summary report Geology and Resources of the Region in the Vicinity of the 49th parallel from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains, with Lists of Plants and Animals Collected, and Notes on the Fossils from the Killadeer Badlands currently part of Grasslands National Park (geology and mineral resources in the region near the 49th parallel from Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains, with lists of the collected plants and animals, as well as remarks on the fossils of the currently for Grasslands National Park belonging Killadeer Badlands ) earned him reputation as a scientist. 1874 Dawson had discovered the first dinosaur fossils in Canada in Grasslands National Park.

From 1883 to 1884 Dawson traveled on behalf of the Government of Canada through the Canadian Rockies, to map the larger mountains and passes, as well as major rivers. He discovered many peaks, including Mount Assiniboine ( 3,618 meters) and Mount Temple ( 3,543 meters). Mount Hector in 1884 from Dawson after James Hector ( 1834-1907 ), a geologist of the Palliser Expedition named. As a result of his field measurements, a map of his work was published in 1886, which is about covering the area between the border with the U.S., the Red Deer Valley and the Kicking Horse Pass in the Canadian Rockies.

In 1887 he led an expedition in the Yukon Territory and developed some of the first maps of this later independent territory. His report was published ten years later in a new edition, as the need for information was soared over the area as a result of the gold rush in the Klondike. Dawson honor the city was named Dawson in the Yukon Territory, as Dawson Creek, British Columbia.

Dawson was in 1875 made ​​a member of the Geological Survey Commission of Canada ( Geological Survey of Canada), 1883, whose deputy director and director in 1895.

Dawson died suddenly in Ottawa from acute bronchitis. He is buried in the cemetery of Mont- Royal in Montreal in the family grave.

Swell

  • George Mercer Dawson, Phil Jenkins: Beneath My Feet. Toronto: McLelland and Stewart, 11th edition, 2007 ISBN 978-0-7710-4388-8. .
  • Joyce Barkhouse: George Dawson - The Little Giant. Toronto: Clarke, Irwin, 1974, ISBN 0-7720-0734-9. .
  • George Mercer Dawson. In: Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Toronto 1979 et seq, ISBN 0-8020-3142-0 ( English, French)
  • George M. Dawson in peakfinder.com
  • George Mercer Dawson in www.rootsweb.com
Academic degree Mount Temple (Alberta) Mount Hector (Alberta) John Palliser Dawson City Integrated Authority File
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