184 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



in attending to the numerous letters which the correspondence branch 

 of the Geological Survey presented. He did much to give the depart- 

 ment the good name it has acquired, and for which it has been so 

 favourably known as a bureau of exact information on a thousand and 

 one things of special interest and value to prospectors and investors in 

 all the provinces of the Dominion, as well as in some of the remotest 

 corners of our country. 



There is little doubt that the state of efficiency of the Canadian 

 Survey grew apace with Selwyn. Having had for many years closely 

 associated with him as chief advisor and assistant the late and lamented 

 Dr. George M. Dawson, Selwyn led the ship through thick and thin suc- 

 cessfully. It cannot be denied that it was under Dr. Selwyn that the 

 Survey reached the height of its career and efficiency in carrying out 

 the objects and aims for which it was instituted. 



Nevertheless, it must not be understood that there were no difficul- 

 ties to overcome, or swords to cross in the long period during which 

 he was Director. 



Seliwyn's aim from the first was to make the Geological Survey of 

 Canada an eminently practical department in which the records of mines 

 and mineral statistics would be kept for the use and information of 

 parliament and the public. Accordingly, it was with satisfaction that we 

 find him in the second month of his term of office (January, 1870), 

 busily engaged in organizing a branch of the Geological Survey for the 

 purpose of collecting " Reports of Mines and. of Mining statistics 

 of the production and consumption of minerals in the Dominion." 

 The decision he arrived at was publisihed in the official " Canada 

 Gazette," and Messrs. Robert Hartley and Robert Bell were requested 

 to undertake the collection and arrangement of the returns made from 

 year to year. 



■ The inadequacy of the buildings then at the disposal of the survey 

 was a point on which Dr. Selwyn repeatedly dwelt, and a larger amount 

 of space necessary for the proper illustration and exhibition of the min- 

 erals, resources and industries of the different provinces was repeatedly 

 urged by him. 



His first " Report " is addressed to the Hon. Joseph Howe, M.P., 

 Secretary of State for the Provinces, and in it Dr. Selwyn points out 

 the practicability of the establishment of a School of Mines in connec- 

 tion with the Geological Survey. 



