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tions. It can readily be seen, therefore, that the task now entered upon 

 by Dr. Selwyn was one of no small magnitude. In regard to the North- 

 west and some portion of British Columbia, some work had already 

 been accomplished, both by Prof. Hind, in his exploration of the Sas- 

 katchewan plains, and in the great Palliser expedition, by Dr. Hector, 

 and the maps furnished by the latter were for years the only guide by 

 which one could fix his position in that territory with any approach to 

 accuracy. In addition, new and more detailed investigations had, of 

 necessity, to be carried on in the older provinces in connection with the 

 metamorphic and metalliferous rocks, and in the great wilderness 

 country lying between Lakes Huron and Superior and the Hudson 

 and James' Bays, as w^ell as in the eastern provinces of Nova Scotia and 

 New Brunswick. It is, probably, not saying too much, nor, I trust, 

 will it appear to savor of adulation if we state that, probably, no enter- 

 prise so great as the complete geological and natural history survey of a 

 country embracing over 3,000,000 square miles was ever undertaken by a 

 staff so small in numbers, or carried on with an expenditure so insignifi- 

 gant, as is being done by this same Geological Survey of Canada. And 

 it is well within the bounds of truth if we say that to the work of the 

 members of its staff is due, in very large part, much of the information 

 we now possess as to the greatness of the country's resources, both agricul- 

 tural and mineralogical, between the waters of the Atlantic on the east and 

 the distant boundary of Alaska on the north and west. It will scarcely 

 be necessai-y to mention individual names in this connection. The 

 various members of the staff and their several fields of labor are too well 

 known to require any special personal reference befoi-e an Ottawa 

 audience, and as this paper has already reached an undue length, it will 

 doubtless be found sufficient if we indicate briefly and in general teKms 

 the extent of the Survey's operations during the last twenty years and 

 give you some of the results ah'eady obtained. 



Before doing so, however, it must here be mentioned that much 

 work of the greatest practical value has been carried on in various fields 

 by geologists and others not attached directly to the official staff of the 

 Survey but who have been more or less intimately associated with the 

 carrying out of the work in the several provinces. Of these, the names 

 of several have been already mentioned, while, of others, the results of 



