[ami] sketch of the LIFE OF DR. A. R. C. SELWYN, C.M.G. 181 



Selwyn's Woek in Canada. 



It was on the first day of December 1869, that Selwyn took charge 

 of the Geological Survey of Canada, which had from its inception, in 

 1841, been carried on by Sir W. E. Logan. Selwyn had arrived in 

 Canada in Octoher of the same year, and vigorously set himself to the 

 task of studying and revising the reports which had been received from 

 'the various assistants, who included the following well knolwn geolo- 

 gists: — Sir Wm. E. Logan, Edward Hartley, T. Sterry Hunt, Eobert 

 Bell, James Eichardson, Charles Eobb, and H. G. Vennor. Besides 

 the above, Eobert Barlow and his son, Scott Barlow, had charge of the 

 ■topographical and cartographical part of the Survey, whilst Elkanah 

 Billings was the palœontologist, with Messrs Horace Smith and Thomas 

 C. Weston as assistants, one an artist, and the other in charge of the 

 museum work, skilled lapidary, préparateur, etc. 



When Selwyn became Director of the Geological Survey of Canada 

 and deputy head of the same, the confederation of some of the British 

 Provinces had only just been effected, and accordingly there was now 

 open to him a much wider field of investigation than to his predecessor. 

 As one after another the different provinces became part and parcel 

 of the Dominion of Canada the work increased coirespondingly, and 

 to such an extent was this the case that the staff of geologists and 

 assistants had to be materially increased, and at the same time men 

 had to be trained to pursue the good work of the old regime. It can 

 be safely said that the staff of the Geological Survey of Canada has 

 never been, and even now, is altogether inadequate to cope with the im- 

 mense field open in the mineral resources of Canada as the Dominion 

 is constituted to-day. 



This period w^as one of great activity in the Canadian Survey. The 

 first copies of Logan's large " Map of the Geology of Canada and adja- 

 cent parts of United States," prepared for the engraver by Eobert Bar- 

 low, were received during the first month of Selwvoi's administration 

 from Edward Stanford, the publisher. Charing Cross, London, 



As an instance of the great activity and energy displayed by the 

 second director of the Geological Survey of Canada at the cutset of his 

 career in Canada, it may be remarked that he not only proposed to 

 Hon. Joseph Howe, as Minister or Head of the Department under which 

 the Geological Survey of Canada was placed, various points bearing 

 on the usefulness of a geological survey from a practical standpoint, but 

 also presented the annual " Summary ' report of the geological investi- 

 gations made by the staff during the previous year. 



