135 



along the south side of the Bay of Chaleur, where, also, thin seams of 

 coal are found, and then proceeded to Gaspe, concerning which reports 

 of the presence of coal had for some years existed, and its determination 

 as a possible coal field was of the very highest importance. Here, in 

 his bark canoe, with a couple of men only, Logan passed some weeks, 

 measuring accurately section after section along the eastern and southern 

 shores of the peninsula, undergoing the usual amount of hardship which 

 such a mode of life entails, and determining very clearly the succession 

 and thickness of the various formations there exposed. The conclusions 

 Logan then arrived at in regard to the value of this so called coal field 

 were to the efiect that no deposits of that mineral could ever be found 

 there in workable quantity, and the views then expressed have ever 

 since been accepted as definite, thus preventing the useless expenditure 

 of capital in that direction. 



It was fortunate for the early history of this survey that the direc- 

 tor should have so thoroughly enjoyed the esteem and confidence, as 

 well as the friendship, of such men as Murchison, Sedgewick and others 

 of the leading geologists of the mother country, by all of whom ofiers 

 of assistance in all the branches connected with his work were h«artily 

 tendered, and without which the elucidation of the particularly knotty 

 problems he everywhere encountered would have been much more diffi- 

 cult. 



While Logan was thus devoting his energies to the working out 

 of the structure of Eastern Quebec, Murray, his assistant, had been 

 equally assiduous in his labors in Western Canada, and in the preface to 

 the Geology of Canada, 1863, Sir William says that " he (Mr. Murray) 

 has blocked out nearly all that is known of the distribution of the rocks, 

 in that division of the Province." In addition to his work in this field, 

 Murray also accompanied Logan on his first great exploration of the 

 Gaspe Peninsula in 1845, during which surveys were made of the 

 Shick-shock range and of most of the larger streams that travei'se that 

 section. In Western Ontario the examination of the country about the 

 Great Lakes was particularly arduous, but productive of great results, 

 and the surveys then made of many of the hitherto unexplored streams 

 and portions of the coast remain as standard work to the present day, 



