129 



would have been spent within the confines of the prison. Dr. Gesner 

 evidently lived in advance of his day, but this sad ending of a life 

 which had done so much to further the intei-ests of the country will 

 always stand out prominently as a bitter reflection upon the public men 

 who permitted such a state of afiairs to exist, could it possibly have been 

 prevented. 



Before leaving our sketch of Gesner's work, we may briefly call 

 attention to his second volume on the " Industrial Resources of Nova 

 Scotia," published in 1849. In this he expresses his indebtedness to 

 several scientists, among whom were Messrs. Jackson and Alger, of 

 Boston, and Sir. Charles Lyell, from whose conclusions, in some res- 

 pects, Gesner continued to difi^er. As indicating the great advance in 

 the science, as compared with the map of 1836, it may be said that in 

 the volume of 1849 Gesner then divided the rocks of the province into 

 no less than eight groups, of which the first, or primitive, rocks are now 

 styled granite or hypogene ; the second, or the non-fossiliferous strati- 

 fied rocks, the Cambrian, cori-esponding largely to much of his former 

 clay-slate division; third, the Silurian, containing characteristic Silurian 

 fossils and resting in small areas on the flanks of the former ; fourth, 

 the Devonian, or old red sandstone group ; fifth, the Carboniferous, or 

 coal formation ; sixth, the old red sandstone, now our Triassic ; seventh. 

 Igneous, or intrusive, rock; and, eighth, the Drift, or Boulder, formation. 

 It may be said of this work that many of the conclusions then advanced 

 are accepted even at the present day. 



Although, as just stated, the operations of the Geological Survey 

 did not for many years extend to this province, almost the first work 

 done by Sir William Logan, in 1843, was the examination of the Cum- 

 berland coal field and the measurement of his famous Joggins section, a 

 work that has ever since remained as a standard by which the rocks of 

 other portions of the Nova Scotia Carboniferous formation can be 

 measured, even to the present day. In the meantime, the study of the 

 science in this direction had not been entirely neglected. Sir Charles 

 Lyell carefully examined various portions of the province and the 

 adjoining Island of Pi-ince Edward, and, as a i-esult of his travels, pre- 

 sented papers of great interest to the London Geological Society. But 

 another Nova Scotian was now coming I'apidly to the front, a man 



