No. 3.] NATURAl HISTORY SOCIETY. 167 



of the Gaspe Devonian were undescribed ; many of them of 

 forms till then unheard of. The shells and corals and graptolites 

 of the older formations could be only roughly correlated with 

 some of those in the New York reports. The rock formations 

 were very unlike those of the New York «eries. Still this 

 work of 1842 and '43 was plain and easy compared with that 

 which arose in the tracing of these formations to the south-west. 

 I may add here that I have since studied some of these Gaspe 

 sections with Sir William's manuscript note-books in my hand, 

 and have been amazed by the extraordinary care and exactitude 

 with which every feature of the rocks had been observed and 

 noted down. Much of the detail in these early note-books of 

 Sir William, still remains unpublished. Those who would de- 

 tract from the work of Sir William Logan, if there are any 

 such, should remember these early beginnings, and compare them 

 with the massive foundations which have been laid for us to build 

 upon. 



And now, after the labour of more than thirty years on the 

 part of Sir William and those he had gathered around him, how 

 do these subjects stand ? (1) We have all the comparatively flat 

 and undisturbed formations of the great plains of Upper and 

 Lower Canada, our share of the interior continental plateau of 

 America, worked out and mapped, and their fossils characterized 

 so that a child may read them. (2) The complex hilly districts 

 with their contorted, disturbed and altered beds, which extend 

 from New England to Gasp(^, have been traversed in every direc- 

 tion, --^ the limits of their difierent formations marked, and a tlieory 

 as to their age and structure put forth, which, whether we accept 

 it or not, has in it important features of the truth, and rests on 

 tacts on which every disputant must take his stand. (3) We have 

 the still older formations of the Lauren tide hills traced in their 

 sinuous windings, and arranged in an order of succession which, 

 must stand whether the names given by Sir William, and now 

 accepted throughout the world, be objected to or not. After the 

 work of Sir William Logan, no cavilling as to names can ever 

 deprive Canada of the glory of being the home of the scientific 

 exploration of the Laurentian ; and mucli examination of the 



* The extent of measured and paced sections in these districts by 

 Sir William and Mr. Kichardison is almost incredible ; and these have 

 been made the basis not only of the geology but of the excellent 

 topographical maps prepared b}'" Mr. Barlow. 



