2 SIR J. W. DAWSON ON SOME POINTS IN WHICH AMERICAN 
by Dr. Bigsby’s “ Notes on the Geography and Geology of Lake Huron.”' In this he 
sketched the primitive rocks of Canada, as extending from the north-east of Lake Win- 
nipeg, passing thence along the northern shores of Lakes Superior, Huron and Simcoe, 
and after forming the granitic barrier of the Thousand Islands, spreading themselves 
largely throughout the State of New York. He also notices the principal varieties of 
gneiss and other old rocks, and recognizes their stratified character. About the same time, 
Richardson published his notes on the geology of Franklin’s northern expedition. 
This was followed up by important papers by Bayfield on the “ Geology of the North 
Coast of the St. Lawrence ” * and on Lake Superior,’ and by papers on the Labrador coast 
and St. Paul’s Bay by Lieut. Baddeley,* while Ingall described the country drained by the 
St. Maurice.’ “Baddeley’s papers in particular, published in the early volumes of the Trans- 
actions of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, show much accurate knowledge of 
rocks and minerals and attention to stratigraphical relations, while in all these papers 
there is a clear discrimination between the old crystalline rocks and the overlying 
“transition ” beds holding fossils. 
It is not too much to say that these researches between the year 1820 and the institu- 
tion of the Geological Survey of Canada in 1842, which have been well summed up by 
Dr. Harrington in his “ Life of Sir William Logan,” placed Canada for the time in a very 
advanced and honourable position. 
But the work of Sir William Logan, beginning in 1842 and continuing until his 
death, marks an epoch not only in our knowledge of the Laurentian and Huronian in 
Canada, but throughout the world. Logan in his preliminary report notices that the 
labours of Bayfield, Bigsby, Baddeley, Wilson, Green and others, had before his time 
shown that the primary rocks, as he then termed them, “form a continuous line from one 
end to the other of Northern Canada.” In his report for 1845, using Lyell’s term “ meta- 
morphic,” he defines the existence of a lower group of gneiss and of an overlying group 
containing crystalline limestones. He also at this time recognized the still higher forma- 
tion subsequently called “ Huronian,” and a little later the distinctive characters of the 
Upper Laurentian were established. It was in 1854 that the name “ Laurentian” was 
proposed in Logan’s report for that year. 
An attempt has recently been made by certain American writers, not, I am happy to 
say, men of much estimation in their own country, to belittle Logan’s work, and even to 
throw doubts on the validity of the magnificent stratigraphical investigations by which 
he finally established the fact of the continuity and bedded character of the Laurentian 
system and the sequence of its deposits. These detractions might well be passed over in 
silence ; but I may say here that, having gone over several of Logan’s Laurentian sections 
with his maps and notes as my guides, I can testify to the minute accuracy of his work, 
and to the care and sagacity with which he had unravelled the relations of these difficult 
and disturbed formations. I have also much pleasure in knowing that the most eminent 
of the later writers on the Western Geology of the United States, like Chamberlin and 
Irving, fully accord with Logan’s conclusions, which have long been accepted by the best 
authorities in Eastern America and Europe. 


1 Trans. Geol. Soc., Vol. i. Sec. ii. p, 175. * Ibid. Vol. v. (1833) See. ii. p. 89. 
3 Trans. Lit. and Hist. Soc. of Quebec, Vol. i. + Thid. Vol. i. 5 Jbid. Vol. ii, 
