4 Captain Bayfield on the 
We trust we have now said enough to explain the motives 
which induce us to hope that this attempt may be useful ; 
and only wish, that our knowledge of the science of Geology 
were commensurate with the advantages which we have men- 
tioned, or that those advantages had been enjoyed by either 
of those gentlemen, who, in that case would have rendered 
it unnecessary for us to attempt a task to which we feel our- 
Selves but indifferently adequate, 
it is not our intention to give a full and minute account of 
the various rock formations, or of the minerals which they 
contain. Our endeavours will be confined to giving a cone 
cise and general view of them, making such observations as 
may occur to us, and which may naturally arise out of the 
subject under consideration. We shall endeavour to avoid 
all hypothesis, convinced that the science of Geology is not 
yet sufficiently advanced to admit of the reception of any one 
theory to the exclusion of the rest. 
The objects of Geology are to examine the crust of the 
globe : to seek among the ruins of strata forthe only records 
of those awful events which have swept whole orders of or- 
ganized beings from existence. ‘These are enly to be ob- 
tained by the accumulation of facts. By endeavouring to 
add to the mass of information now collecting in all parts 
of the world, we may fairly hope to be useful; and itis this 
which has stimulated us to this undertaking. 
We shall also enumerate such minerals as were met with, 
and their localities, 
2. Lake Superior is the largest and most elevated of 
those magnificent inland Seas, the Canadian Lakes. It is si- 
tuated bétween the meridians of 92°. 14’ and 84° 34’ west 
longitude from Greenwich, and the parallels of 49° 1’ and 
46° 25' north latitude. Following the sinuosities of its 
coasts, iLis about 1500 geographical miles in circumference. 
Its length on a curved line through its centre is about 360, 
and its extreme breadth 140 geographical miles. Its shape 
will 
