LITERARY NOTICES. 



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LITERARY NOTICES. 



Life of Sir William E. Logan, Kt., LL. D., 

 P. R. S., F. G. S., etc., First Director of 

 the Geological Survey of Canada. By 

 Bernard J. Harrington, B. A., Ph. D. 

 Montreal : Dawson Bros. Pp. 432. 



Professor Harrington has performed 

 an acceptable service in giving us the story 

 of Sir William Logan's life, so full of in- 

 terest in connection with the development 

 and conduct of the Geological Survey of 

 Canada, of which Logan was the first di- 

 rector and zealous supporter, from the date 

 of his appointment to this service in 1842, 

 until his death in \&1o. 



Born of Scotch parents in Montreal, in 

 1*798, and educated under a Scotch master, 

 in 1814 he was sent with his brother Hart 

 to the High School of Edinburgh, then in 

 the zenith of its reputation. In 1816 Lo- 

 gan became a student in the university, but 

 his university life closed with his first year, 

 and he then went to London to take a place 

 in the commercial house of his uncle, Mr. 

 Hart Logan, where he remained for about 

 ten years. The letters of Logan, to his 

 brother chiefly, during this period are full 

 of genial humor, and picture the writer 

 like a mirror, showing up the sweetness and 

 manly spirit of a most charming character. 

 Those of us who knew Sir William only in 

 later life, when he had espoused Science as 

 his only mistress, gain a new view of the 

 man as he unconsciously betrays his loving 

 nature in these genuine letters. 



His geological life began when in 1831, 

 at the age of thirty-three, by a change in 

 his occupation he was placed in charge of 

 a copper-smelting and coal-mining enter- 

 prise in Wales, where his uncle had em- 

 barked in a smelting process on the waste 

 slags of Swansea. His duties here led him 

 to renew and extend his acquaintance -with 

 scientific pursuits. In 1840 he revisited 

 Canada and renewed the associations of his 

 early life. The first mention of his survey 

 of Canada grew out of a conversation Lo- 

 gan had in 1841 with the late Dr. William 

 B. Rogers, whom he met in Philadelphia. 

 The subject had been brought forward by 

 Dr. Rae, in 1832, by a petition to the Pro- 

 vincial Legislature, but repeated solicita- 

 tions for money for this purpose failed to 

 gain the attention of the Government until 



1841, when 1,500 was secured for the pur- 

 poses of a survey. The strong support of 

 Mr. Logan by De la Beche, Murchison, 

 Sedgwick, Buckland, and others, left no 

 question but that Logan was the best per- 

 son to place in charge of this important 

 work. His appointment was confirmed in 

 1843, and he entered immediately with the 

 utmost zeal and devotion upon the duties of 

 his office. It is impossible to read his let- 

 ters and journals at this time without a 

 strong conviction of his rare talent and 

 skill in meeting and overcoming difficulties 

 which to a less bold and determined ex- 

 plorer would have appeared insurmount- 

 able. Professor Harrington's narrative sets 

 forth clearly the successive steps of the 

 work and its organization. Space forbids us 

 to follow these interesting details. The 

 whole volume sparkles with the good humor 

 and bright remarks scattered in Logan's 

 journal and letters, making it a volume of 

 unusual interest both for the general and the 

 scientific reader. In his Canadian work he 

 was ably aided by Alexander Murray, for 

 mnny years his principal geological assist- 

 ant ; Billings, his able paleontologist ; Hunt, 

 his chemist and co-worker in structural ge- 

 ology for about a quarter of a century; and 

 later Hartley, a young geologist of uncom- 

 mon promise, too soon removed by death, 

 not to mention others of merit. 



On Work and Wages. By Sir Thomas 

 Brassey, K. C. B., M. P. New York : G. 

 P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 284. Price, $1. 



The experience of that celebrated rail- 

 road-contractor, Thomas Brassey, Sr., with 

 large numbers of workmen of various na- 

 tionalities, and in various localities in Eu- 

 rope, forms the nucleus of this book. The 

 greater part, however, consists of the re- 

 sults of inquiries into the labor question by 

 the author, his son. Strikes and trades- 

 unions are the first subjects discussed, and 

 then follows a chapter, largely made up of 

 illustrations and statistics, in which it is 

 shown that the rate of wages is regulated, 

 not by the fiats of trades-unions, but by 

 demand and supply. The distinction be- 

 tween the rate of wages and the cost of la- 

 bor is next pointed out, and abundantly il- 

 lustrated. A comparison in respect to effi- 

 ciency of the laborers of several European 



