Vlll PREFACE. 



suggests the fact that the present Edition, probably the last which the 

 author will be permitted to issue, merely marks a stage in that 

 progress ; and that the time will soon arrive when its imperfections 

 will be revealed by the discovery of new facts, when many things now 

 uncertain may have become plain, and when some things now held 

 as certain will be proved to have been errors. When that time shall 

 come, I trust that those who may build on the foundations which I 

 have laid, if they shall find it necessary to remove some misplaced 

 stone or decaying beam, will make due allowance for the difficulties 

 of the work, and the circumstances under which it was executed.* 



Many portions of the Work are intended only for reference. I 

 would therefore advise the reader, when he finds his progress arrested 

 by a dry catalogue, a sectional list, or descriptions of fossils, to pass 

 on to the next readable portion. Should he meet with terms or 

 allusions which are not intelligible, by referring to the General Index 

 he will find their explanation in some other portion of the Work. The 

 Index will also be found very useful to those who desire to refer to 

 the structure of particular localities, the description of fossils, or the 

 notices of useful minerals. A " Classified List of Illustrations," 

 an " Index to Economic Geology," and an " Index to Subjects in 

 General Geology," have been added to the Table of Contents, in order 

 to facilitate such reference. 



The lovers of the lighter kind of scientific literature may be 

 disappointed in not finding in this work any incidents of travel or 

 illustrations of the aspects of social life in Acadia. I have been 

 obliged by the pressure of graver and more important matter to resist 

 all temptation to dwell on these ; but may perhaps find some future 

 occasion to introduce the public to the incidents and adventures of 

 my geological excursions. 



Some explanation may be necessary as to the use of the terms 

 Canada and Acadia in this volume. While the Work was in pre- 

 paration, that political change was inaugurated whereby the name of 



* In connexion with the latter, I think it only just to myself to state that my note- 

 books contain a large amount of local geological detail, which, however appropriate in 

 the Eeports of a Survey, could not be inserted in a Work of this description ; and that 

 in the following pages a few lines must often represent facts collected in the arduous 

 labour of days or weeks. Much matter will also be found in the papers which I have 

 published, more especially in the Journal of the Geological Society of London, and 

 which it has been impossible to reproduce here. 



