Section IV, 1889. [ 3 ] Trans. Eoy. Soc. Canada. 



I. — Presidential Address: On the Progress of Geological Investigation in New Bruns- 

 wick. By L. W. Bailey. 



(Read May 10, 1889.) 



It is, I believe, the custom in our Society, as in others similarly constituted, and one 

 the utility of which has been justified by experience, that he who may have been 

 honored by selection as the Presiding Officer of a Section should make to that Section 

 something of the nature of a formal address, and that this should take the shape of a 

 review, or at least be upon some topic of general interest, rather than upon one which is only 

 local or technical. To one, therefore, whose labours, like my own, have been wholly 

 confined to unravelling the intricacies in the geology of sUch little known and so com- 

 plicated regions as that of the interior of New Brunswick, the attempt to meet the 

 r(>quirements of the custom referred to presents unusual difficulty. But, one source of 

 satisfaction connected with the working out of such problems is always present in the 

 fact that their issue has often a bearing far beyond the immediate region in which they 

 are undertaken. It has thus happened, at several different periods since the investiga- 

 tion of New Brunswick geology was begun, that discoveries, at first apparently of little 

 value, have been found to really possess a significance of vast and general moment. I 

 think, therefore, that I cannot do better, upon the present occasion, than to bring before 

 you some facts referring to the progress and present status of New Brunswick geology, 

 and while thus dealing with a theme upon which I may hope to speak with some 

 degree of personal knowledge, to suggest at the same time some points and comparisons 

 which may be found to have a much wider application. As regards the few members of 

 the Section who are not geologists, I must ask their kind indulgence, reminding them at 

 the same time, that many most interesting facts connected with the botany, zoology, agri- 

 culture, and climate of difi"erent districts, are also connected with and dependant upon 

 their geology, some few of which in the present instance I may take occasion to notice. 



The present time seems an appropriate one at w^hich to make such a review as I have 

 proposed, as this yeaT witnesses the issue of the final sheets of the maps prepared by the 

 Greological Survey, in illustration of the geology of New Brunswick. The first efforts in 

 the direction of the preparation of such maps were made in the year 18t0, but owing to 

 the great difficulty experienced in obtaining even a probable solution of some of the 

 problems necessary for that purpose, it was not until the year 1880 that the first sheets of 

 the map were actually issued. These were three in number, two in illustration of the 

 southern counties (Charlotte, St. John, and King's) and largely based upon work done in 

 this region prior to the extension thereto of the work of the Greological Survey, and another 

 embracing portions of Queen's, Sunbury, and York Counties, illustrating the position 

 and relations of the Grand Lake coal-field. A special report and map, exhibiting the 

 distribution of the Albert bituminous shales and Albertite deposits of Albert and "West- 

 moreland Counties, had previously been issued in 18*77. Following upon the investiga- 



