J.W. Spencer : his life in Missouri and Georgia, and work on proglacial lakes

Geoscience Canada, Dec, 2004 by Gerard V. Middleton

   "My primary object is the study of glacier,
   lacustrine and volcanic phenomena. I will
   sail from N.Y., direct to Gibraltar and then
   to Malta, Sicily, Italy, Switzerland, France
   and probably Norway and afterwards
   spend a month in Britain." (DP, Jan. 16,
   1886).

   "... the President says stay as long as I
   like ... but there is an Executive Committee
   here, on which there is a man, or some
   men, who do not think that a professor
   needs any more time than a common
   school teacher (who, by the way, is also a
   professor in this Country, if he is not a
   colonel, major, or judge) ... (DP, Feb 1,
   1886).

The visit proved to be a great success.

He wrote to Bell (BP, Sept. 27, 1886):

   "10th of March last I left Columbia, 10th
   of Sept[ember] I returned ten years
   younger. I visited Ema, and had a hard
   time in the ascent. Saw Vesuvius in
   eruption, visited Ischia, etc. In fact, about
   the Bay of Naples there is more of interest
   boiled down into one place than
   anywhere I have ever been.... Of all the
   [other] countries Norway is the most
   delightful ... Ice does not erode, although
   it may sweep off the country as a broom
   does the dust off the floor.... When I was
   in Europe before [visiting Gottingen in
   1877], I came home without any wish to
   go back again. I would go back next year
   if I could."

Some months after his return, he heard that E.J. Chapman, Professor at the University of Toronto, was looking for a "Coadjutor with right to succeed." (BE May 5, 1887). Andrew Lawson was interested in the same position, and wrote for Spencer's assistance. Spencer explained that he wrote recommending him "in Mineralogy and Lithology" but if the position was really to succeed Chapman he wanted the position for himself, and added: "For God's sake help me out of this place, for ... I have said more profane things in three or four months than all my life before ten times over. I like the University very well, and the dep[artment] very much, and would be sorry to leave. But I want to go north into a decent city ..."

He also wrote to Dawson, and to George Dickson, his old headmaster at Hamilton Collegiate Institute (and by then Principal of Upper Canada College, therefore on the Board at the University of Toronto). Dickson replied, referring to "your old pupil, Lawson" (SP, May 13, 1887): "... his chances are very good ... I have already spoken in favour of Lawson, but this will not prevent me putting in good words [?] for my former colleague and friend." Spencer was not overly enthusiastic about Toronto: he wrote to Dawson (DP, May 25, 1887):

   "I would not accept a position as assistant
   to Dr. Chapman. [Toronto] would be
   pleasanter, the session shorter, the
   associations of the faculty superior but
   less scientific advantages inside, as there
   has been hostility towards scientific
   equality with classics, etc. One of the
   Senate [presumably Dickson] told me that
   they were not going to grant science
   degrees and allow the good old classical
   arts to fall into disfavour. However,
   Ontario is the most unscientific place in
   the civilized world, and Toronto
   University has been responsible in a
   general measure."