I am most happy to hear that Papa approves of your progress in Drawing – you will, I hope, be encouraged by this to earn a further amount of his approbations.
But you say Papa has bought you a pair of snow shoes, I am not sure that he has done right in so doing. When Grandpa was a young man he was one time journeying along, on a Wintry day, on Horseback, towards Halifax, in company with {a} Mr Patterson and some other Pictonians. – There had been the previous night a fall of snow of about 15 inches which ended with a shower of Rain, that froze into a thin ice on the Top of the snow but not strong enough to carry a man. – After leaving Salmon River, where we had put up all night, we observed the Tract of a person walking on Snow Shoes, going in the same direction we were; when we had advanced about 3 miles our Horses all at once took fright and pricked up their eyes & ears, and were like to run off with us. – we looked in the same direction with the Horses and saw some thing weltering and plashing in the snow – Two of us dismounted and gave our Horses to the others to hold and went ahead on foot to see what it was – and what do you think it Turned out to be? Why, a poor unfortunate Pedestrian who had borrowed Mr Archibald’s snow shoes to take him onto [...], and not having any experience in their use – he fell and his head & shoulders went down through the soft snow while his feet and snow shoes remained on the surface, and in that position he would most likely have soon finished, had we not come to his rescue.
I shall not forget your request about “[Dayands] Book”
Give my love to Anna. WB and Miss Bell.
Yours afftly
The above gives a brief insight into the character of James Dawson, who was evidently a man of keen observation with a variety of interests. He also obviously believed in the instruction of children, even if the practical lessons of life had to be taught with rather vivid stories.
It is also interesting to be able to reproduce a few of George’s letters, written at age eight, in reply to those of his grandfather.
April 23d 1857
Dear Grandpapa
I thank you very much for the seeds you sent us. Dr. Anderson14 has been visiting us and when he was down town he bought me an Album in four languages German Latin French and English. Mama has planted sweet peas in the crocus pot and they are springing up nicely we each have one side. With love to you {and} give {my} love to Agnes.
May 16th [1857]
Dear Grandpa
I have got my seeds sown and Papa brought <yes> Miss Bell Me and Anna {to the mountain} and we got a lot of Aders tongues trillium sanguinaria & saxifrage.
there are also great improvements going on in the grounds there ar I think 18. men busy: they have planted upwards of 400 trees carried away the surface stones and are going to make a new fence.
Please give my love to Agnes.
June 2 57
Dear Grandpa
it is very hot just now. some of my seeds are coming up I go out every morning to pull up the weeds from their roots; papa’s garden is laid out very nicely, we were very glad to hear that you are a little better and I hope you will be able to go up the Mountain
6James Dawson (1789-1862) arrived in Pictou, Nova Scotia, from Scotland in 1811 and became a prominent businessman. James was a devout Presbyterian with extremely strong convictions, who was not always popular in the community. After retirement he spent his last years in Montreal with J.W. Dawson’s family.
7Anna Lois (Dawson) Harringon (1851-1917), the oldest of George’s sisters, was also his closest friend and confidant. Even after her marriage to Bernard Harrington in 1876, Anna continued to share an intimate and rich relationship with George. They corresponded regularly and George recurringly offered assistance to his sometimes beleagured sister, who had nine children. Anna remained in Montreal for her entire adult life, eventually dying of a lung tumour.
8Lac St-Pierre.
9Or The Band of Hope Review and Sunday Scholar’s Friend, which was a temperance periodical for children begun in 1851.
10William Bell Dawson (1854-1944), Dawson’s younger brother, also became a well-known scientist though overshadowed for many years by George and their father. William graduated from McGill in 1874 with his Bachelor of Arts, obtained a bachelor’s degree in applied science the year after, then went to Paris to the prestigious Ecole des Ponts et Chaussees. Following his studies there William went into private engineering practice then joined the Dominion Bridge Company as an engineer in 1882, staying until 1884 when he accepted a position as assistant engineer for the Canadian Pacific Railway. Finally, in 1884, he began what he considered his main professional undertaking: director of the Dominion Survey of Tides and Currents. Until his retirement in 1924 he recorded and mapped tides and currents in the harbours and on major steamship routes of the Canadian coasts. William married Florence Jane Mary Elliott (1864?-1945) and the couple had three sons and a daughter.
11Margaret Ann Young (Mercer) Dawson (1830-1913) was the youngest of four daughters born to a prominent Edinburgh family. Over the objections of her parents, Margaret married J.W. Dawson on 19 March 1847, and left for life in British North America. Although retiring by nature, Margaret Dawson fulfilled admirably the difficult tasks of a university principal’s wife and mother to five children. Deeply religious, Margaret enthusiastically encouraged Christian values and a Christian faith in all her children.
12James 3:5.
13Proverbs 22:6.
14Possibly William James Anderson (1812-1873) a Scottish born and educated physician and journalist came to Canada in the 1830s and worked first in Nova Scotia then Quebec.
CHILDHOOD ESSAYS
This collection of some eleven essays written by George at the ages of ten and eleven, when originally discovered, was a neat little bundle tied up with pink linen ribbon. Each essay was folded in three, with a cover of original hand drawn designs in black and white appropriate to the subject. The essays proved to be most interesting, and rather remarkable for a child of George’s age. Some of the better essays are included below.
Vegetation.
Vegetation is that part of life which does not [fell] or move the nearest approach to animal life is made in the sensitive and and pitcher plant whenever you touch the sensitive plant it all curls up and the pitcher plant <it> has at its extremity a pitcher like cavity which is filled with water every morning and there is a little lid which shuts every night. Trees are the largest <a> form of vegetable life the highest trees are the palms and the most spreading the banyan the smallest form <of> is <the> mould there are many intermediate between the largest and the smallest. The food of all animals is originally derived from vegetable