=Mackay, Alexander Howard=, B.A., B.Sc., F.S.Sc. (Lond.), Pictou, Nova Scotia. Alexander Mackay, the paternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, and the progenitor of a numerous family, many of whom are favourably known in Canada as members of the learned professions, was born in Sutherlandshire, Scotland, in 1762. He emigrated to Mount Dalhousie, in the county of Pictou, Nova Scotia, in 1822, took up several hundred acres of land for farming, and in 1847 died, loved and revered by a large community who looked up to him as a patriarchal chief. His second son, John Mackay, was born in Sutherlandshire, in 1810, and emigrated with his father and the rest of the family in 1822. In 1836 he travelled through a portion of the United States of America, and Ontario, in Canada, where he took up some land; but finally settled down on the old homestead. In 1847 he married Barbara Maclean, who was born at Roger’s Hill, in the county of Pictou, in 1823. Her father, John Maclean, was born in the west of Scotland, about 1758, and died at Roger’s Hill in 1848. From this marriage came a family of seven boys and three girls. The eldest, Alexander Howard Mackay, was born on the 19th May, 1848. His father was a man of remarkable probity of character, of very superior intellectual powers, and enthusiastically patriotic. In addition to the farm, a mechanic’s shop, with a turner’s and cabinetmaker’s tools and machinery, supplied the ways and means. There was no luxury, however. Hard manual work, alternated with study, was used in developing the various and versatile powers of the whole man. The play of mechanical ingenuity, original constructive effort, and acute investigation, filled the hours of recreation. This family discipline was a perfect success. The father, John Mackay, died February 22nd, 1879. The mother is living in good health at the date of writing, August, 1887. Young Alexander could read and write before he went to the public school, which was two miles distant. The farm and the school divided his time; but the leisure hour found him constructing a sextant, theodolite, or transit instrument, which he never previously saw, and with which he made remarkably accurate measurements; or making some apparatus to demonstrate a law in physics or chemistry; or exploring the natural history of the picturesque glen running through the homestead. In 1865 the trustees of the school section pressed him to take charge of their school. Although he had no license, never having thought of becoming a teacher, he accepted the position. In 1866 he graduated at the head of his class from the Provincial Normal School at Truro. In 1867 he attended the Pictou Academy, and at the provincial examination of teachers following, won the first place. In the fall of 1869 he matriculated in Dalhousie College, and for four years was a leading prizeman in his classes. He graduated a B.A. in April, 1873, with special honours in mathematics and physics. He was also the valedictorian of his class, and was for the last three years of his undergraduate course an editor of the college paper, _The Dalhousie Gazette_. He also took classes in the School of Science in the Provincial Museum, under the provincial geologist, Dr. Honeyman; and in the Medical College, then affiliated with Dalhousie. After graduation he was appointed principal of the County Academy at Annapolis Royal, and a few months later received the unsolicited appointment to the principalship of the Pictou Academy and public schools of Pictou, which position he holds at present. He assumed charge of the Pictou Academy, November 1st, 1873, since which time the staff and attendance of the institution have been more than doubled. In 1874 he was elected president of the Education Convention of Nova Scotia, a position to which he was re-elected. From this time he has taken a very active and forward part in promoting educational reform through the press and otherwise. In 1876 he spent a portion of the year in studying the educational appliances in the leading cities of the eastern United States. His efforts culminated in 1881, in the erection of the present Pictou Academy, one of the finest and best equipped academic buildings in Canada. Its facilities for scientific teaching are greater than are those of many colleges. In 1880 he graduated a B.Sc. from the University of Halifax, with first class honours in biology. In addition to his educational work, he has also found time to engage in original scientific investigation. His papers or work may be found in the “Proceedings” of several scientific societies. His popular scientific writings have been numerous and widely diffused.