R.C. Dowie resided in Bulawayo where, in collaboration with G. Fitzgerald, he compiled A local guide to Bulawayo and neighbouring places of interest (Cape Town, 1897, 40 p.) to mark the opening of the railway to Bulawayo in November 1897. On 31 July 1901 he read two short papers before the Rhodesia Scientific Association. The first dealt with "Ancient stone hammers from the Tati District"; the second, "An ancient copper mine", provided a brief description of an ancient mine some 32 km south-east of Francistown, Botswana. Both papers were published in the association's Proceedings (Vol. 2, pp. 61-63; 63-65). Dowie was still listed as a resident of Bulawayo in 1903, but no longer in 1908.
