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interest even at the present day. Dr. Gesner was not only a man of 

 very distinguished ability, but a very close observer. He divided the 

 rocks of the province into four grand classes, of which the first, and 

 presumably the oldest, group was styled the primary, following the gen- 

 erally accepted nomenclature of that day, which he held to occupy the 

 entire southern side of the province along the Atlantic sea-board. 

 These were flanked throughout a great part of their extent, on the 

 north-west, by a belt of clay-slates, or argillites, extending from the 

 western extremity to the extreme north-east point. This area he 

 included under the head of the clay-slate district. His third division, 

 that of the red sandstone, embraced largely the great areas of the car- 

 boniferous system, and what is now regarded as the triassic, lyiug to the 

 west and north of the preceding, while his fourth, or trap, district 

 included a considerable extension of eruptive rock which forms the 

 chain of the North Mountains along the south side of the Bay of 

 Fundy and about the lower portion of the Basin of Minas, of special 

 interest, both then and now, as affording some of the finest specimens 

 of zeolitic minerals anywhere to be obtained. 



While it may be generally stated that the structure of the pro- 

 vince, as thus outlined by Dr. Gesner, has not been confirmed in every 

 particular by the work of more recent observers, it must be said that 

 many highly interesting points were brought forward, and have been 

 sufficient to warrant the placing of Dr. Gesner's name in a prominent 

 place among the earlier workers in the field of Canadian geology. He 

 next took up the work in the adjoining province, New Brunswick, and, 

 in a series of reports extending down to 1845, presented, likewise, a very 

 fair summary of its sti'ucture and mineral wealth, a work, in fact, that 

 for many years was accepted as the standard for that section. By him, 

 also, the first geological maps of the two provinces were prepared, and 

 it is a sad commentary upon human life to know that the closing years 

 of a man so celebrated for scientific research, instead of being filled with 

 the honours he so richly deserved, were embittered by neglect and pov- 

 erty, insomuch that, through inability to meet some petty pecuniary 

 liability, he even suffered incarceration in the common jail, and had it 

 not been for the kindness of some one of his friends who chanced to hear 

 of his position and ])rccured his release, the closing hours of his life 



