4 BULLETIN OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



The following sketch of Dr. Gesner's scientific work wasreaii 

 before this society some years ago but was held over from publi- 

 cation, awaiting a more detailed .iccount of his early life and 

 education than was then available. This account has been fur- 

 nished by the Messrs. Gesner in the sketch of his career given in 

 Bulletin No. XIV, and to this will natural!}^ succeed the account 

 of his literary labors. 



Geology and Mineralogy of Nova Scotia. 



The earliest important work of Dr. Gesner of which the 

 writer has any knowledge is one on the Geology and Mineralogy 

 of Xova Scotia pul)lished in 1836.* 



In the preface to this work, Dr. Gesner claims for Nova 

 Scotia that abundance of useful and important minerals which 

 she has since been shown to possess, and this at a time when her 

 coal industry was in its infancy, and her gold mines unknown ; 

 and he says that she will maintain her pre-eminence in this 

 respect unrivalled by any country of equal size. 



The author tells us that this work was written for the 

 "perusal of the general readei"," and in accordance with this 

 intention it is prefaced with a short introduction to the science 

 of geology and mineralogy, drawn from the woiks of eminent 

 writers of the first half of the present century. Among tlie 

 writei's frequently quoted in this book are Mohs, Brongniart, 

 Buckland, Cuvier, Lyell and Cleveland. An outline such as 

 Dr. Gesner gave was the more necessary in those days l)ecause 

 scientific text-books on the science of Geology wei'e few, and 

 difficult of access in a new country. 



Gesner acknowledges receiving some information from the 

 writings of JMessrs. .Jackson and Alger, two Boston chemists, and 

 from Mr. Haliburton's history of Nova Scotia. On comparison 

 witli the work of the two former the reader will piMceive that 

 Dr. Gesner has drawn largely for information from this soui'ce. 

 but at the same time he does not show a slavish adherence to the 

 opinions of these authors. 



* Remarks on the Geology and Mineralogy of Nova Scotia by Abraham Gesner, 

 Surgeon, 313 pp., 2 pi., 1 map. Halifax 1630. 



