NATURE 



i6i 



THURSDAY, JULY i, 1875 



SIR WILLIAM EDMOND LOGAN 



BY the death of this illustrious geologist and most 

 genial man, science has been deprived of one of her 

 bravest and best soldiers, while those who personally 

 knew him have lost a true, warm-hearted friend. 



One by one the magnates by whose toil geology rose 

 during the first half of this century are taken from us. 

 Link after link is broken in the chain of living men who have 

 served to bind us personally with the birth and infancy of 

 that science. Few were left to us, and of these few none 

 more honoured and beloved than the veteran who has just 

 been called away. Of Scottish parentage (his father 

 having been a landed gentleman in Stirlingshire, who 

 had emigrated to Canada), W. E. Logan was born at 

 Montreal in the year 1798. He was sent home to the old 

 country for his education, and studied, it is believed, both 

 at the High School and the University of Edinburgh. 

 Eventually, having developed an ardent love for geo- 

 logical pursuits, he settled in South Wales and began to 

 study the structure of the great coal-field of that region. 

 It was there that he fostered that habit of patient and 

 exact observation, combined with quickness of eye in 

 seizing the salient points in the geological structure of a 

 region, which stood him in such good stead in later life. 

 During a series of years he carefully followed the outcrops 

 of the various coal-seams, tracing the positions of the nume- 

 rous faults by which they are traversed, and putting all 

 his data upon the .one-inch sheet of the Ordnance Survey. 

 These maps of the South Welsh coal-field were probably 

 the first in this country, on so large a scale and of so 

 extensive a district, where the details of geological struc- 

 ture were depicted with such minuteness. They were 

 generously handed over to Sir Henry de la Beche when 

 he began the Geological Survey in that region, and he 

 found them so admirable that he adopted them for the 

 Government Survey, on the early sheets of which the 

 name of W. E. Logan is engraved in conjunction with 

 those of De la Beche, Ramsay, Phillips, and Aveline. 

 He worked on the staff of the Survey as an enthusiastic 

 volunteer, lending invaluable assistance in the South 

 Welsh region, and among other services introducing 

 horizontal sections on a true scale of six inches to a mile, 

 which served as models for the large sections of the Survey. 



One of the most important observations made by Logan 

 during this early part of his career was one relating to the 

 origin of coal. He pointed out, what is now so universally 

 recognised and yet does not seem ever to have struck 

 anybody before, that each coal-seam rests upon an under- 

 clay or fireclay in which rootlets of Stigmaria branch 

 freely in all directions. This association of coal and 

 Sti^maria-clAy he found to be so general that it could not 

 be regarded as accidental. He suggested that the clay 

 represented an ancient soil or mud in which the Stigmaria 

 grew, and that the coal stood now in place of the matted 

 vegetation which grew upon that soil. The value of this 

 contribution to our knowledge of the history of coal and 

 of the changes in physical geography to which the strati- 

 fied rocks bear witness, can hardly be over-estimated. 



In the summer of 1841 Mr. Logan went to America and 

 Vol. XII.— No. 296 



spent the autumn of that year in explorations of the coal- 

 fields there. He examined the Pennsylvanian region, 

 which had been studied by Rogers, and afterwards went 

 through the coal-districts of Nova Scotia, where he made 

 some original observations. He spent the winter of 1841- 

 1842 in Canada, devoting himself among other things to 

 watching the behaviour of ice as a great geological agent 

 on the rivers. In the spring of 1842 he took his place 

 again at the Geological Society of London, and gave 

 there some interesting details regarding what he had 

 seen during his absence on the other side of the Atlantic. 



About this time (1842) there arose in Canada a desire 

 to know something more about the mineral resources of 

 the colony, and the Legislature went so far as to vote a 

 sum of 1,500/. for a geological survey. The Canadian 

 authorities consulted the Home Government as to a suit- 

 able person to take charge of the undertaking, mentioning 

 at the same time Mr. Logan's name, and requesting 

 information as to the estimation in which his scientific 

 qualifications were held in this country. Murchison 

 happened at the time to be President of the Geological 

 Society, The official request being forwarded to him, he 

 recommended the proposed appointment in the warmest 

 terms, as one that would " render essential service to 

 Canada, and materially favour the advancement of geolo- 

 gical inquiry." This testimonyand doubtless the warm 

 support of his old friend, De la Beche, led to Mr. Logan's 

 appointment as organiser and director of the survey of 

 the rocks and minerals of his native country. 



From the commencement of this work in 1843 Mr. 

 Logan's whole energies were given to the task which had 

 been assigned to him, and never did a public servant toil 

 more earnestly and disinterestedly for the attainment of 

 the great purpose of his office. He had to struggle on, 

 with little encouragement, in the face of difficulties which 

 only a brave and devoted nature could have faced. First 

 of all, his official position was for many years a most pre- 

 carious one. Though the Legislature, in a fit of patriotic 

 fervour, had sanctioned the equipment of a geological 

 survey, and had voted a slender sum for its maintenance, 

 yet it soon naturally enough began to ask what value it 

 received for the money thus expended. The Ministers of 

 the day could not always satisfy utilitarian legislators, 

 and indeed Ministers themselves were not infrequently 

 lukewarm friends if not avowed enemies to the young 

 Survey. Mr. Logan's tact in steering his bark through all 

 these obstacles, and finally gaining the haven of popu- 

 larity both for it and for himself, is above all praise. Yet 

 this was done without the surrender of any of the tho- 

 roughly scientific spirit in which his labours were at first 

 conceived. He and his associates worked steadily as 

 true men of science, but they never forgot that in a young 

 country, with resources not only undeveloped but un- 

 known, the exploration of its mineral wealth was a matter 

 of primary importance. Hence year by year, in the 

 reports of progress presented to the Canadian Parliament, 

 he was able to give fresh information regarding commer- 

 cially important rocks and minerals, while at the same 

 time putting forward facts of the highest interest to 

 students of geology all over the world. It is in these 

 official reports that the chief work of Sir William Logan's 

 life is embodied, includi]^ of course the admirable maps 

 on which the field-work nas been published. 



