MEMOIR OF A. E. BARLOW 13 



which was held in jMontreal, Doctor Barlow, on the morning of May 28, 

 left with Mrs. Barlow for Qucl^ec, where he took passage for Liverpool, 

 intending to spend some months in England; hut that night, when near 

 Father Point, in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the Empress of Ireland 

 was struck hy the collier Slorstadt, coming from Sydney, Nova Scotia, to 

 ^[(mtreal, heavily laden w ilh coal, and in a few minutes sank with most 

 of her passengers and crew. Doctor BarloAV, who was very alert, active, 

 and a powerful swinnner, evidently swam away from the sinking vessel 

 supporting liis wife. l)ut was struck l)y a piece of wreckage, rendered 

 imconscious, and both succumbed. 



Alfred E. Barlow was born in Montreal on June 17, 1861, and was a 

 younger son of liobert Barlow of the Eoyal Engineers, who in earlier life 

 was engaged on the Ordnance Survey of England, but subsequently came 

 to Canada, and was appointed by Sir William Logan to the position of 

 Chief Draughtsman on the Geological Sun^ey of Canada, Avhich position 

 he filled for many years, his work leading up finally to the publication 

 of the great Geological Map ol' the Dominion of Canada, issued by Tjogan 

 in 186.'), wliieli was (Hie of the liiicst examples of cartogra^jhy which had 

 appeared up to that time. 



Alfred Barlow, having coiu])Ieted Ids schooling in Montreal, entered 

 the Faculty of Arts of ]\[cGill University in 18T9, Mhere he studied 

 geology under Sir AVilliam Dawson, graduating four years later with 

 lirst-rank honors in natural science and the Logan gold medal. Shortly 

 after graduating he was appointed to a position on the statf of the 

 Geological Survey of Canada, and for two summers worked under the 

 late Dr. 17. W. Ells in the Shickshock Mountains of the Gaspe District 

 and in tlie Cobequid Mountains of N"ova Scotia. In 1885 he became 

 assistant to Dr. A. C. Law^son, and for several seasons worked with him 

 in the Lake of the Woods and Eainy Lake region. This epoch-making 

 investigation awakened in him a keen interest in the problems presented 

 by the ancient crystalline rocks of Canada, to the study of wliich in their 

 various phases he devoted the remainder of his life. 



From 1887 to 1895 he was engaged in a study of the pre-Cambrian 

 rocks of the Sudbury, Nipissing, and Timiskaming districts, in eastern 

 Ontario. The results of this work appear in several reports issued by 

 the Geological Survey of Canada. In these he pointed out the promising 

 cliaracter of this region as a field for careful prospecting, which is of 

 interest, since some years later the rich silver veins of the Cobalt Camp 

 were discovered in this area. During this time he also made a detailed 

 report on tlie geologv of llie niekel-l)eariiig rocks of the township of 

 Creigliton, in the Sndlniiv |)isiii((. for (lie Moml Niekfl Coninauy, ami 



