434 THE PROGRESS OF GEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION 
formations in the maritime provinces have thus occasionally 
presented features difficult to reconcile with those which are 
found in supposed similar formations elsewhere, when the attempt 
at interpretation has been made purely from the standpoint of 
the contained fossils by those who were not familiar with the 
local conditions of structure or the nature of the rock formations 
which are there presented. 
In the present paper no attempt will be made to discuss the 
different views which have been put forth from time to time 
regarding the horizons of the several rock groups in Nova Scotia. 
To do justice to this aspect of the subject would extend the 
limits of the paper to great length. It is proposed, therefore, to 
give merely a brief statement of some of the work which has 
been done in this field, with a short notice of the men who have 
been largely instrumental in elucidating the principal points of 
structure throughout the province. 
Much of this early work in the field was carried out by two 
Nova Scotians, viz., Dr. Abraham Gesner, a name well-known in 
the central portion of the province, and by Sir William Dawson, 
a native of Pictou. Both of these men, under many difficulties, 
partly inseparable from that early date, devoted much of the 
time taken from their otherwise arduous duties to the study of 
the somewhat complicated geological problems there presented. 
The task which these two distinguished men, who may well 
be styled the pioneers in geological science in the eastern prov- 
inces, thus voluntarily assumed in the first half of the last 
century was no easy one. Even in England, the actual work of 
a geological survey had scarcely been commenced. The nomen- 
elature of the science was in its infancy, and the many helps 
towards deciphering the writings in the great book of the rock 
formations, which are now available to the students of geological 
structure, were altogether, or almost entirely, lacking. 
When these men began their work the country was com- 
paratively but little opened up for settlement. Roads were few 
and far between when once the main lines of communication 
