ABRAHAM GESMER REVIEW OF HIS SCIENTIFIC WORK. lO' 



county, especial!}', lai-ge amounts were invested in the Albei'tite 

 mine (discovered soon after Gesner completed his surveys) and 

 in the sandstone quarries on the coast and the Petitcodiac river. 

 The mining of coal in Queens county was prosecuted with vigor, 

 and iron furnaces were started at Woodstock. But the returns 

 from these sources did not prove so valuable as from the mines 

 of the neighboring province, and discredit was thrown on the 

 work of Dr. Gesner. He had committed the error of expressing 

 an opinion on the mineral wealth of the province more favorable 

 than the after results justified, and hence a reaction came which 

 probal)ly helped to terminate his engagement with the provincial 

 government. This, however, haidly justified the withholding of 

 his salary for the last year, which was not paid for some time 

 after the work of exploration terminated.* 



In judging of Dr. Gesner's work, I think sufiicient allowance 

 has not been made for the imperfections of the science of geology 

 in his time. He lived, or at least his training was obtained in 

 the formative period of the science, almost before its general 

 principles and laws were formulated. From his earlier works it 

 will be noticed that he interpreted geological phenomina by the 

 theories of Werner and Hutton ; in later years he decides the 

 age of the several terranes which he found in the metamorphic 

 hills of southern Xew Brunswick on the tests and data of 8ir 

 Roderick 3Iurchison and Professor Sedgewick, and finally he 

 became acquainted with the theories of Agassiz and Lyell, 

 relative to the glacial period. We are not to expect from a 

 geologist living in that early period, the exact methods of the 

 modern trained specialist. 



The limestone beds in the Narrows of the St. John river to 

 which Gesner drew attention, have been largely ([uarried for 

 lime of late years, and that a similar result has not flowed froin 

 the discovery of deposits of iron ore and gypsum described in his 

 reports, is in part due to the modern conditions of trade, and 



*The followina' is an extract fiom a letter from Dr. Gesner to Hon. G. S. Hill. 

 St. Stephen, dated Cornwallis, N. S., Ttli August, 1844 : " I need scarcely adJ that so 

 far I am unable to obtain a whole year's salary due from the province for services 

 ordered and duly authorized by Sir'William [Culebrooke, the Lieut. Governor] * * * 

 and I can hardly express my dissatisfaction and mortification." 



