VI EOYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA. 



[ Copy- ] 



McGiLL University, Montreal, 

 Feb. 17th, 1887. 

 Dear Prof. Stokes, 



Eeferriiig to your recent presidential address, and to ibat of last j'ear by Prof. Huxley, and to 

 the j)roj)Osed action of the Council of the Eoyal iSociety on the subject of a scientific federation of the 

 empire under ihe ausj)ices of that Society, I beg leave respectfully to invite j-our attention and that 

 of the Council to the aspect of the matter with reference to geological science, which in some 

 important respects will lend itself to such union moie readily than most other departments of scientific 

 woik. I had the honour to refer to this subject in my presidential address at the meeting of the 

 Briti.sh Association in September last, and also in a paper previousl}' read before the Geological 

 Section of the Royal Society of Canada, and trust therefore that you will not consider it out of place 

 on my part to address this communication to you. 



It is, I think, evident from the report of the last meeting of the International Congress of 

 Geologists, that great, if not insuperable, difSculties lie in the way of any general agreement as to 

 geological classification, nomenclature and mapping. These difficulties, however, depend so largely 

 on difference of language aud ci' habits of thought, that they would not affect a union for scientific 

 purposes on the pai-t ol the geologists of the British Empire, and ultimately' of all English-speaking 

 countries. It therefore appeals that such a more limited union might with advantage be undertaken 

 in the first instance, and with the view not of obstructing but of aiding (he wider movement. 



The British Empii'e also possesses exceptional facilities for taking the lead of other nations, in so 

 far as geology and physical geography are concerned. The British Islands, as is well known, are 

 remarkable for the great variety of their formations and the excellence of their exposures, and much 

 of the present classification and methods of representation in geology has originated in Great Britain, 

 and has been adopted with slight variation in all English-sjjeaking countries, and to a considerable 

 extent in other countries as well. In Canada we have the lai-ger half of North America, and much 

 of this veiy satisfactoi'ily explored. Wo have also the advantages of the best exposures of the older 

 ciystalline rocks, of a development of the PahTozoic series in the Eastern Provinces, more 

 closelj' allied to that of Europe than to that of the interior American plateau, and of Pleistocene 

 deposits so extensive and complete that they must ultimately decide many of those questions of 

 glacial geologj' which have been so much agitated. In India, Australasia aud South Africa, with the 

 westei'n districts of Canada and various smaller dependencies, we hold a controlling influence in the 

 geology of the great Pacific and Indian Ocean areas. Arctic and Antarctic geology and modern 

 oceanic deposits have been worked principally by English observers, and English-speaking geologists 

 have been and are exploring in many countries not under the British flag. More especially the large 

 amount of geological woik done in the United States is based on English methods, and is joublished 

 and discussed in the English language, and the most intimate and friendly relations subsist between 

 the geologists of the United States and those of Great Britain and the colonies. 



In these circumstances, it would seem that a union of British and Engli.sh-speaking geologists 

 might overcome the difficulties which appear so formidable as between the different European nations, 

 and might lay a broad foundation of geological fact, classification, nomenclature and representation 

 which would ultimately be adopted by other countries as far as local divei'sities and différences of 

 language might peimit. Such a geological union would naturallj^ be accompanied or followed by 

 similar cooperation in other departments of investigation in natural science. 



It seems probable that the Geological Survey of Great Britain and the Geological Surveys of the 

 Colonies and of India, with the British Association and the geological societies and geological sections 

 of societies in all parts of the empire, would be willing to cooperate in such a movement under the 

 auspices of the Iloyal Society, and that the Council might usefully invite cominunications on the 



