176 



Canada has always maintained a hi.uh place among similar institutions. 

 Thirty-five year3 ago Billings set himselt earnestly to the task of 

 decii)hering the history of our country as written in its fossil remains 

 How well he succeeded is evidenced by the fact that the work of E. 

 Billings not oi.ly refleded the highest lustre on the Survey in his branch 

 while he remained a member of its staff, but the determinations then 

 made have never ceased to be regarded as authorit itive. Since his day 

 the opening of the North West has introduced a new feature into the 

 study of Canadian paleontology by the accession of great collections of 

 fossils from the Cretaceous and other closely associated formations of 

 that area, and less attention has in consequence been directed to the 

 study of the older paleozoic tossils ; but this chtinge in policy has only 

 been in accordance with the rapidly growing importance of our western 

 country. The result of the fifty years' collecting in this branch of the 

 Survey work has been to gather together one of the finest and most 

 comprehensive collections, illustrative of the life of past ages in the 

 earth's history, that can anywhere be found ; a collection of such value 

 to the scientific world that if by chance it should be destroyed its loss 

 would be regarded as a great calamity by everyone interested in science 

 the world over. 



Of the internal economy of the Survey we have as yet spoken but 

 in general terms. Here much work of the highest im|)ortance must be 

 carried out. The collecting of facts relative to structure and the 

 making of surveys in the field would not possess one-':enth of their real 

 value, were no provision made by which these surveys and facts could 

 be presented in compact and visible shape to the general as well as the 

 scientific public. Hence the necessity of a topographical corps 

 whereby not only can the work of the field staff be arranged in map 

 form for publication, but connecting surveys can be made to render 

 these more intelligible. Then there is the careful arrangement of the 

 Museum by which everything deemed worthy of exhil)it can be so 

 placed as to show to the best possible advantage the relation between 

 the rock structure and the contained fossils where such exist, and 

 the minerals or ores also which may therein be contained; in order 

 that anyone in quest of information can most readily obtain such to 

 the fullest possible extent and with the least possible delay. 



