140 



much work of the greatest importance in connection with the develop- 

 ment of Canada's mineral resources was produced. The confederation 

 of the provinces in 1867 opened new fields for the Survey's operations, 

 and the hitherto somewhat small amounts, granted from time to time, 

 were soon found to be inadequate to carry on the operations over such 

 greatly extended areas. In the meantime the Survey had lost one of 

 its original members in the person of Mr. Murray, who at the request 

 of the Newfoundland Government had undertaken the survey of that 

 colony, a task for which he was especially fitted by his long acquaint- 

 ance with the rocks of Ontario and Quebec. The stafi" had gradually 

 been enlarged, but the great strain to which the director had for some 

 years been subjected now began to tell upon him severely, and in 186& 

 Sir "William Logan felt it incumbent upon him, in view of the greatly 

 increased area to which the operations had been extended, and the 

 growing interest he felt in the elucidation of certain highly puzzling 

 problems of structure in eastern Quebec to which he had for many years 

 devoted special attention, to lay aside, as far as possible, the direct 

 charge of the Survey's operations and to seek a successor. His resigna- 

 tion took efi'ect in that year, and with this date, 1869, we may close the 

 second stage of geological investigation in Canada. The position thus 

 rendered vacant was filled by the appointment of Dr. Selwyn, the 

 present director, a gentleman of very extensive experience, not only in 

 the Ofiicial Survey of England and Wales, but in the great colony of 

 Australia, where he had for a long period filled the position, also, of 

 director of the Survey of New South Wales. And from this date we 

 enter upon what we may here style our third period. 



Hitherto, as already stated, the work had, for the most part, been 

 confined to the two provinces of Quebec and Ontario, in which the great 

 questions of Canadian geology had been most successfully worked out. 

 Henceforth, it had to include in its scope the distant areas of British 

 Columbia, the great plains of the North-west Territory, the rugged 

 masses of the Rocky Mountains, and the wide expanses of the Peace 

 and Mackenzie River basins, concerning all of which, or in great part, 

 at least, our information was of the most meagre kind, not only of its 

 vastness of territory, but of its geological structure, its mineral wealth, 

 its agricultural capabilities, and its natural history and climatic condi- 



