66 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Feb. 



and much useful information is given as to the modes of rendering 

 such deposits useful elsewhere. 



The value of this work to Canada can scarcely be over-estimated. 

 It must be regarded as of vast importance, whether we consider 

 readers abroad or at home, whether we consider scientific objects 

 purely or those which are practical. Its mechanical execution is 

 an evidence of the progress of the arts among us. Its publication 

 to the world is a proof of the interest taken in science in this 

 country, and of the enlightened patronage afibrded by the Govern- 

 ment to such investigations, and at the same time, of the 

 immense value of our mineral resources, as well as of the 

 extent to which they have already been made available. It gives 

 for the first time to geologists abroad the means of making them- 

 selves thoroughly acquainted with the geology of this country ; and 

 it thus places Canada on a level with those older countries whose 

 structure has been explored, and the knowledge of it made the 

 common property of the world. In some departments of geology, 

 it even makes Canadian rock-formations rank as types to which 

 those of other countries will be referred. This is especially 

 the case with regard to those oldest of known rocks, the Lau- 

 rentian series, whose intricacies have for the first time been 

 unravelled by the Canadian survey, their mineral character 

 explained, and the earliest known traces of animal life ob- 

 tained from them ; so that the term Laurentian is applied 

 as the general designation for the most ancient formations 

 of Europe as well as of America. To the people of Canada, 

 the publication of this Report must mark an era both in science 

 and practical mining. Any one desirous of studying geology, 

 has here to aid him a detailed account of the structure of his own 

 country ; an advantage not hitherto enjoyed by our self-taught 

 geologists, and one which in a reading country like this, must bear 

 good fruit. The practical man has all that is known of what our 

 country produces in every description of mineral wealth ; and has 

 thus a reliable guide to mining enterprise, and a protection against 

 imposture. Even in the case of new discoveries of useful min- 

 erals which may be made, or may be claimed to be made, after the 

 publication of this Report, it gives the means of testing their prob- 

 able nature and value, as compared with those previously known. 



No one, in short, need henceforth have any excuse for professing 

 ignorance of the labors of the (reological Survey, or for representing 



