PilOCBEDINGS FOR 1894. LV 



the St. Lawrence, and some of the lakes nearly as large as our Canadian internal seas, with a climate, 

 as I am informed, gradually improving as you go westward, and becoming dolitfhtful on the Pacific. 

 It will be a great country hereafter. But who knows anything of its geology ? Well, I have a sort 

 of presentiment that I shall yet, if I live long enough, bo employed by the British Government, under 

 the Survey you direct, to examine as much of it as I can, and that I am here in Canada only learning 

 my lesson, as it were, in preparation." He then stales that he had been informed of the existence of 

 coal in the Saskatchewan territory and Oregon, adding : " In Oregon the value of coal for the supply 

 of steamers protecting and connected with our new Chinese trade will perhaps soon be felt, and it 

 might be an item worthy of the attention of the British Government in any settlement of the Oregon 

 question with the Americans. "When the British Government gave up the Michigan territory at the 

 end of the last American war, with as little concern as if it had been so much bare granite, I dare say 

 they were not aware that 12,000 square miles of coal field existed in the heart of it." 



This it will be remembered was written as long ago as 1845, and what Logan then fore^^aw has 

 since come to pass, though not precisely in the manner he anticipated. Some years later (1851) Sir 

 John Eichardson, after his journey through the northern part of the continent in search of Franklin, 

 was still able to write thus : 



" Beyond Lake Winnipeg no geologist has yet penetrated and the descriptions of the rocks 

 occurring within the space of twenty degreci of latitude that lie to the north of that sheet of water 

 are, with all their imperfections, entirely my own. It would be true economy in the Imperial Govern- 

 ment, or in the Hudson's Bay Company, who are the virtual sovereigns of the vast territory which 

 spreads northwards from L:»ko Superior, to ascertain without delay the mineral treasures it contains. 

 I have little doubt of many of the accessible districts abounding in metallic wealth of far greater 

 value than all the returns which the fur trade will over yield.' " 



Following Richardson, the first fruits of geological exploration in the western part of the 

 Dominion, were gathered by Dr. (now Sir James) Hector, attached to the British North American 

 Exploring B.xpcdition in 1857 to 1860, by Profeasor Hind, despatched by the Canadian Government 

 in connection with the Assiniboine and Saskatchewan Exploring Expedition in 1858, and by the North 

 American Boundary Commission, with which I had the honour to bo associated, in 1873 and 1874. 

 But at about the same time with the work of the last mentioned expedition, the investigations of the 

 Canadian Geological Survey were extended to the Northwest Territories, and Logan (who had then 

 retired from the directorship of the Survey) had at least the satisfaction of seeing before his death, 

 which occurred soon after, the initiation, under the auspices of the Survey which he may be said to 

 have created, of the work which he had outlined so many years previously and had then hoped to 

 have himself taken part in. 



This work has since been continued, with results which may be stated without contradiction to 

 have been of great importance to the settlement of the country and to iho development of railways 

 in it. 



The extension of the work of the Geological Survey above alluded to, followed naturally from the 

 confederation of the various parts of British North America. It was no longer limited to Upper and 

 Lower Canada, but spread to the maritime provinces in the east and over a truly vast area to the 

 west and north. 



The general nature of the objects to be attained by the Geological Survey, as originally contem- 

 plated, were set out as follows in Logan's own words, incorporated in the act of 1845 : " To make an 

 accurate and complete geological survey of the province, and furnish a full and scientific description 

 of the rocks, soils and minerals, which shall be accompanied with proper maps, diagrams and drawings, 

 together with a collection of specimens to illustrate the same ; which maps, diagrams, drawings and spe- 

 cimens shall be deposited in some suitable place, which the Governor-General in Council shall appoint, 



' Arctic searching expedition ; ajournai of a boat voyage through Rupert's Land and the Arctic i^ea. London, 

 1851. 



