b BULLETIN OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



statements of Dr. Gesner, relative to the occurrence of coal, and shows, 

 by reference to all known outcrops, that the coal field of New Bruns- 

 wick, instead of being one of the largest discovered on the globe, as 

 stated by Gesner, was really small as compared with those of Illinois 

 and Pennsylvania, and that the coal supply, instead of being " inex- 

 haustible " and "of the highest importance not only to New Brunswick 

 but to Great Britain and the United States," was really very small, 

 the only workable seam known, and that of limited extent (the Grand 

 Lake seam), not exceeding eighteen or twenty inches. 



Another point in which Dr. Bobb took issue with Dr. Gesner, of 

 less economic significance, but still involving important consequences, 

 was that of the true stratigraphical position of the red saliferous and 

 gypsiferous rocks which cover such large areas in southern and some 

 parts of northern New Brunswick. These, on account of their 

 lithological resemblances to the rocks of the New Red Sandstone 

 formation of England, with which he was familiar, were asserted by 

 Dr. Gesner to be newer than the Coal formation, whereas Dr. Robb, 

 following the view of Sir Charles Lyell, maintained, and correctly, 

 that the greater part of them are really older than the coal measures. 



But the most important contribution in this direction made by 

 Dr. Robb is that of a Geological Map, contributed to Prof. Johnston's 

 Report, in which, taking Dr. Gesner's incomplete maps as a basis, but 

 modifying them as influenced by his own observations, as well as by 

 those of Jackson, Logan and Lyell, he makes a distinct advance in the 

 representation of the geological structure of the Province. With 

 characteristic modesty, however, he observes that the map, made at 

 Prof. Johnston's request, is unsatisfactory to himself, and is offered 

 with very great diffidence. 



In a sketch of the scientific work of Dr. Gesner, prepared by 

 Dr. G. F. Matthew, and published in a Bulletin of this Society 

 (No. XV, 1897), a very full discussion of the former's view is given, 

 together with a representation of his map reduced from the map in 

 the hands of the Natural History Society of New Brunswick, showing 

 the result of his first three years' survey, and the more complete one 

 in the possession of the Crown Lands Department at PrederictOD, 

 which shows also the work of his fourth year. Unfortunately we are 

 without any record of Dr. Robb's observations and conclusions, 

 excepting the very brief observations embraced in the letter to Prof. 

 Johnston accompanying his own map. We are therefore limited to a 



