46 BULLETIN OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



We cannot judge Dr. Gesner by modern standards, but by the 

 criteria of the times in which he lived ; nor should we omit from 

 consideration the slowness and difficulty of communication in 

 those times. Knowledge of the kind required by the geologist 

 was not disseminated in those days by the magazine and scientific 

 journal ; there were no great schools for investigation and for 

 teaching the science to the same extent as now ; and for those 

 who lived far from the active centres of thought the attainment of 

 exact knowledge in natural science, and especially of its new dis- 

 coveries, was slow and difficult. Hence we should give Dr. Gesner 

 full credit for the good he accomplished and excuse the mistakes 

 and deficiences incident to his times and position. That his later 

 life was to some extent clouded cannot but be a matter of regret 

 to those who witnessed his zeal in pursuing the chief object to 

 which he devoted himself, viz.: the development of the natural 

 resources of his native country. That he struck out the main 

 geological features of the maritime provinces of Canada correctly 

 there can be no question, that he committed errors of detail is also 

 undeniable, but this is what every geological surveyor who works 

 in a difficult and complicated region is liable to do. 



He recognized what would now be termed the Pre-carbon- 

 iferous " massif " or " complex " of these provinces in the com" 

 plicated rocks of the several bands of crumpled and more or less 

 metamorphic rocks which traverse them. These he included 

 under the name of Graywacke system, referred by him at one 

 time to the Silurian, but finally to the Cambrian age ; and as 

 regards the northern metamorphic belt in New Brunswick in 

 part to the Silui'ian. This massif or complex is now known to 

 contain rocks ranging from the Laurentian to the Devonian. 



He recognized as overlaying these a mass of secondary strata 

 consisting of softer and unaltered rocks as covering extensive 

 tracts in these provinces. These he referred to three geological 

 systems — the Old Red Sandstone, the Coal Formation, and the 

 New Red Sandstone. His Old Red Sandstone is now regarded 

 as Lower Carboniferous, and while we retain his "New Red" 

 Sandstone, we eliminate from it large areas which he supposed 

 were of this age, and refer them to the Carboniferous system. 



