127 



Silliman's Journal, 1831, and in other publications, and have been cited 

 in this report." 



Of the work of other observers, we have, in 1827, valuable notes 

 by Dr. J. Richardson, who accompanied one of the Franklin expeditions 

 to the north coast of America. In 1837, Mr. J. Roy, of Toronto, pre- 

 sented a paper, the first of its kind, apparently, on the superficial 

 geology of Western Canada, in which he estimated the subsidence, from 

 the evidence of terraces, at about 1,000 feet below the present sea level. 

 In 1840, also, Mr. Kenwood gave some very interesting facts on the 

 geology of northern Kew Brunswick, discussing the distribution of the 

 granites of that area, the extent of the great carboniferous basin, and 

 the presence of fossiliferous sediments about the Bay of Chaleur. But 

 perhaps the most important paper at the close of this period was that 

 by Sir Charles Lyell, in 1843, on the recession of the Falls of Niagara, 

 embodying the results of a careful study of the peculiar conditions 

 there presented ; a paper often quoted since by writers on the subject 

 of denudation and the geological history of the great lakes. This was 

 followed in the same year by the first paper of Sir William Logan on 

 Canadian geology, in which he described the distribution of Laurentian 

 boulders along the St. Lawrence below Montreal and the presence of 

 marine shells in the clay in the vicinity of that city. 



The papers above enumerated may, as already suggested, be 

 regarded as constituting the first period in the history of Canadian 

 geology. 



Before proceeding to the consideration of the work of the second 

 period, or that embraced by the work of the Geological Survey under 

 Sir William Logan, we may briefiy glance at the history of explora- 

 tions carried on in the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, 

 to which provinces the regular working of the Survey was not extended 

 till the year 1868. During the period between 1830-40, Dr. Abraham 

 Gesner, a well known physician of Nova Scotia, and celebrated even at 

 that date as an ardent enthusiast in the study of the science of geology, 

 began the study of the rock formations of that province. The con- 

 clusions he arrived at, after some years' investigation of the subject, 

 were, in 1836, presented to the public in a volume entitled " Notes on 

 the Geology and Mineralogy of Nova Scotia," a book possessing much 



