l62 



NATURE 



\ytdy I, 1875 



But his difficulties lay not only in official quarters. He 

 had to go forth into the forest and ascend unvisited 

 rivers without a track or a map. He had to make his 

 own map as he went along, camping out with Indian 

 attendants for months together, and forcing his way as a 

 true pioneer of civilisation, through solitudes which in a 

 few years later were to become scores of active industry. 

 Through all such hardships he carried a devotion which 

 not only brought him cheerily to the end of them, but 

 inspired his officers with much of his own energy in the 

 common cause. And not his own small'staff merely, but 

 farmers, country doctors, and settlers of all kinds whom 

 he enlisted into his service for such work as he found 

 them able and willing to undertake. He used, for in- 

 stance, to describe graphically and with much quiet 

 humour how in this way he got a number of utterly un- 

 scientific colonists to aid in tracing a band of limestone 

 through a district where no rock could be seen for the 

 covering of soil and drift. He provided them each with 

 a long iron-pointed stick and an acid-bottle, and instructed 

 them to thrust the stick well down through the soil till 

 they struck it against the solid rock underneath. There- 

 upon, pulling it out, they were to apply a drop of acid to 

 the bruised grains of stone adhering to the point of the 

 stick. If they saw a brisk effervescence, they were to 

 mark the place as lying on hmestone. 



The organisation of the Canadian Geological Survey 

 was admirably adapted for the work to be done, and shows 

 Sir William's skill as an administrator. Directing the 

 whole operations himself, working personally in the field 

 at original observation as well as visiting and superin- 

 tending the field-work of his staff, he had to get the ut- 

 most amount of work done for the smallest amount of 

 money. He secured some excellent assistants in the 

 field-work, whose names have long been familiar to geolo- 

 gists — Alexander Murray, now ably directing the New- 

 foundland Survey, James Richardson, and, in later years, 

 Robert Bell and others. He early saw that the field-work 

 required to be aided in two important directions — mine- 

 ralogical and chemical analysis, and palseontological 

 determination. Accordingly, he obtained for the former 

 subject the services of Dr. Sterry Hunt, whose reports on 

 Canadian rocks and minerals and contributions to che- 

 mical geology have since become so well known ; while 

 for the latter he fortunately found and retained Mr. 

 Billings, who has done such good work among the inver- 

 tebrate fauna of the older palceozoic rocks of British 

 North America. Ever ready himself to give information 

 and assistance, he everywhere solicited and obtained it 

 from others for the advancement of the Survey. 



Of the benefits which the Survey has conferred on 

 Canada, perhaps the best proof is furnished by the firm 

 footing and comparatively liberal equipment which it has 

 now obtained from the Provincial Legislature, The Sur- 

 vey has opened up in a systematic and trustworthy way 

 the mineral structure and resources of the colony. It has 

 formed a museum and laboratory in which the minerals, 

 rocks, and fossils of the country are examined and illus- 

 trated with special reference to the industrial develop- 

 ment of the country. It has been the means of creating 

 reliable topographical maps over wide regions which had 

 not previously been depicted on any map. 



It would take longer to enumerate the many services 



which Sir William Logan's Survey has rendered to Geo- 

 logy. Foremost among them we should probably place 

 the great additions which it has made to our knowledge 

 of the stratigraphy of the older formations. The exist- 

 ence of the vast Laurentian system with its twofold set 

 of rocks and its Eozoon hmestone was a fact first made 

 known by Logan and his associates. The position of the 

 Huronian system was likewise recognised and its name 

 given by them. The northward development of the well- 

 subdivided North American Silurian series with its abun- 

 dant and characteristic fauna has been most diligently 

 followed out and described by the same band of obser- 

 vers. They have, moreover, given the Survey a European 

 reputation for their chemical and mineralogical work, and 

 for their contributions to our knowledge of some of the 

 older forms of palaeozoic life. 



These various and admirable labours were in large 

 measure inspired by the genial enthusiasm of the direc- 

 tor. The official narrative of them contains the record 

 of the main work of his life. During more than a quarter 

 of a century, while constantly engaged in active and 

 successful exploration, ;he hardly ever pubHshed any 

 papers except in the parliamentary blue-book, in which 

 his annual report was ordered to appear. He seldom 

 came before scientific societies with an account of his 

 discoveries, but cheerfully accepted the more restricted 

 circulation and flimsy appearance of the Yearly Report 

 to the Government. The geneValised summary which he 

 published in 1863, in a thick volume, on the progress of 

 the Survey during the first twenty years of its existence, 

 contains the gist of his work, as well as a luminous 

 account of all that was then known of the geology and 

 mineralwealth of the province. 



In the year 1856, after his. successful representation of 

 the mineral productions, of Canada at the Paris Exhibi- 

 tion of 1855, Sir William Logan received the honour of 

 knighthood in recognition of his long and unwearied 

 exertions in the task which he had undertaken. He met 

 with abundant tokens of appreciation from scientific socie- 

 ties both in Europe and in America, and he had the great 

 gratification of seeing that this widespread testimony to 

 the value of his labours and those of his associates 

 was [not without its influence upon society in Canada. 

 By impressing his fellow-countrymen with the idea that 

 after all there might be something useful and even to be 

 proud of in their Geological Survey, it probably in no 

 small measure helped to secure the position of the Survey 

 as an institution deserving of support and extension. 



In the year 1869 Sir Wilham, finding at last that the 

 duties of his office were becoming too heavy for his 

 advancing years and faihng health, resigned his appoint- 

 ment, and was succeeded by Mr. A. R. C. Selwyn, who 

 had served in the Geological Survey of Great Britain, and 

 afterwards directed the Survey of Victoria. His unabated 

 interest in his favourite science, however, was shown by 

 his donation of $20,000 towards the endowment of the 

 Chair of Geology in M'Gill College, Montreal. 



Sir William's collected papers and reports would make 

 several, stout volumes. They were always written clearly 

 and for the sole purpose of telling what he had seen and 

 believed or inferred. They did not in the least address 

 themselves to the general or popular audience. Indeed, 

 he used to confess himself wholly at sea when called upon 



