14 BULLETIN OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



be taken that the quality of it is good, aucl that the poor settler, who 

 often has no other library than his Bible and his almanac, should find 

 in the latter something more nourishing than the chaff of Astrology, 

 Alchemy and Divination." With this purpose in view, there is given 

 a vast quantity of information, including, besides the usual monthly 

 tables and accompanying tidal and lunar changes, a most interesting 

 synopsis of provincial chronology, revised lists of provincial latitudes 

 and longitudes, a register of the executive and legislative departments 

 of the government, the judicial department, the roll of barristers and 

 attorneys, a list of clergy of all denominations, banks, public institutions, 

 •etc., etc. It contained, also, tables of exports and imports, rates of 

 duties, abstracts of revenue returns, tallies of temperature, times of 

 the opening and closing of navigation for successive years, tables of 

 roads and distances in New Brunswick, and rules for the calculation 

 of interest. It was, in fact, a sort of universal gazetteer, which, in 

 the breadth and accuracy of its information, would compare favorably 

 with much more recent and more pretentious volumes. 



It will appear, from what has now been stated, that the life of Dr. 

 Robb, though it has left but few records in the form of published 

 contributions to knowledge, was a very busy one, and exerted a very 

 extended influence upon the progress of intellectual and scientific 

 development in New Brunswick. In estimating the results of his 

 labours we must, as with Gesner, bear in mind the fact that science 

 in that day was, in many of its branches, and especially in geology, 

 in its early infancy. Dr. Robb's isolated position, as has been said, 

 also made it difficult for him to know what was being done in the way 

 of investigation elsewhere. And, finally, the facilities for travel in the 

 Province were far inferior to such as exist at present. Of railways 

 there was only one, that of St. Andrews, and, speaking of the proposed 

 construction of another, he remarks, " There is great talk of railways 

 at present (this was in 1847), but I am doubtful. Unless there be a 

 federal union of the provinces, I doubt whether the groat line from 

 Halifax to Quebec would pay." 



Dr. Robb was a member, and in 1 S4 9 and succeeding years Presi- 

 dent, of the Fredericton Society of St. Andrews, as also member of the 

 •Church Society of New Brunswick, and in both capacities is remembered 

 .as a zealous and energetic worker. 



The removal at an early age of a man of such great and varied 

 capacity, occupying so many different positions in the community, and 

 at the same time ever ready to give advice, professional or otherwise, 



