166 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. ix. 



aotice of this subject should be taken iu this address ; and that 

 if no absolutely certain conclusions on all the points in dispute 

 can be affirmed, the state of the controversy should be clearly- 

 explained to the bystanders, and the ground cleared for further 

 wrestling on the part of the combatants, should this prove to be 

 necessary. In attempting to perform this somewhat difficult 

 task, it will be proper that I should refrain from entering into 

 details, and that T should confine myself to the question as it 

 relates to Canada, without discussing those features of it which 

 belong to the regions farther south. 



I would first say a few words as to the position of the late Sir 

 William E. Logan in relation to the older rocks of Eastern Ca- 

 nada. When Sir William commenced the Geological Survey of 

 Canada in 18i2, these rocks, in so far as his field was concerned,, 

 were almost a terra incognita, and very scanty means existed for 

 unravelling their complexities. The "• Silurian System " of 

 Murchison had been completed in 1838, and in the same year 

 Sedgwick had published his classification of the Cambrian rocks. 

 The earlier final reports of the New York Survey were being 

 issued about the time when Logan commenced his work. The 

 irreat works of Hall on the Palgeontolooy of New York had not 

 appeared, and scarcel}'^ anything was known as to the comparative 

 palaeontology and geology of Europe and America. Those who 

 can look back on the crude and chaotic condition of our know- 

 ledge at that time, can alone appreciate the magnitude and 

 difficulty of the task that lay before Sir William Logan. To 

 make the matter worse, the most discordant views as to the 

 relative aoes of some of the formations in New York and New 

 Ensrland which are continuous with those of Eastern Canada, 

 had been maintained by the officers of the New York Survey. 



Sir William made early acquaintance with some of these 

 difficult formations. His first summer was spent on the coast of 

 Gaspe and the Baie de Chaleur, where he saw four great forma- 

 tions, the Quebec group, the Upper Silurian, the Devonian, and 

 the Lower Carboniferous, succeeding each other, obviously in 

 ascending order, and each characterized by some fossils, most of 

 which, however, were at that time of very uncertain age. I re- 

 member his showing me in the autumn of ^that year the note- 

 books in which he had carefully sketched the stratigraphical 

 arransements he had observed, and also the forms of character- 

 istic fossils. But both wanted an interpreter. The plants 



