6 KOVAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Gcsner appears to have commenced fiis studies on the geological 

 structure of his native province, Xova Scotia, not far from the same tinv:', 

 but probably a little later, since his first publication on the subject ap- 

 peared] ill 1830), in which he sketches (he distribution of the several forma- 

 tions over tiie entire province. Bigsby's ojjportunity arcse from his 

 connection as medical ollicer with the British force, engaged in the de- 

 limitation of the boundary between Canada and the United States ; 

 while Gesner'fc work was done, as he says in the preface to his book, in 

 the intervals snatched from the pursuit of an arduous profession, and 

 in a country often difficult to traverse. That his work was largely a 

 labour of love is clear; since he remarks also as regards his volume, that 

 it had not been prepared with leisure and retirement., but under xhe an- 

 noyance of perpetual interruption, while his notes were written out dur- 

 ing the silent hours of midnight, when the labours of the day, but not 

 the fatigues, had departed. 



The writings of both men show them to have been careful observers, 

 and the information contained in these earliest of our contributions to 

 geological science presents many points of great interest. As might be 

 inferred from the limited advance made in the science of geo].ogy during 

 the first quarter of the century, the nomenclature of the subject at that 

 time was not extensive. The attempt to study in detail the successive 

 formations of the earth's cru=t had only b'^on begun n fe-v j-ears previously 

 by the formation of the Geological Society of London, and the rivalries 

 of the two great schools, led respectively by "Werner and Iluttou, h;id 

 scarcely come to an end. 



Xaturally as the first students of Canadian geology received their 

 training from English sources, the terms there employed as regards the 

 nomenclature of the science were applied, as far as possible, to the various 

 rock formations found in tliis country. "We find, therefore, in the 

 writings of Bigsb}', the terms Primitive, Transition and Secondary, 

 names which were used originally by disciples of the "Werner school. In 

 his investigations on the several varieties of rocks, found in the vicinity 

 of Lake Huron, the term Primitive was employed to designate the great 

 series of gneisses, granites and greenstones which are now known largely 

 under the names Laurentian and Huronian, and this broad early classifi- 

 cation remained in force for more than twenty years. 



Under the term Transition was included a series of hard sandstones 

 and quartzites, with certain peculiar conglomerates, which in the Lake 

 Huron basiji have since been designated the Jasper conglomerate; while 

 in the third division, or group of Secondary rocks, were placed the lime- 

 stones of the Manitoulin Island and of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa 

 basins, which contain an abundance of fossils and are now known under 

 the head of Cambru-Silurian and Silurian sediments. 



