Jnnc 25, 1874] 



NATURE 



145 



interest in tlie pursuit of mineralogy and petrography and 

 in tiie perplexing problems of metamorphism. One of 

 the oldest and best of Sir William's staff, Mr. Murray, 

 has now an independent sphere of work in Newfound- 

 land. He has issued a number of reports, to which and 

 to his other services we shall return on a future occasion. 



Geological field-work in Canada differs very markedly 

 from field-work in most other countries. Most of the dis- 

 tricts over which the Survey is now extending are in great 

 measure, or wholly, unexplored, some of them, indeed, 

 having never been visited by a white man before the ad- 

 venturous geologist attacked their rocks with his hammer. 

 There being no roads, and the country thickly timbered, 

 the rivers form the natural routes for e.xploration. Each 

 member of the staff receives in the early summer his in- 

 structions as to the area to be surveyed during the five or 

 six months at most when surveying is possible. Providing 

 himself with biich-bark canoes, two or more white men 

 as vpyagcurs, and a variable band of Indians as guides 

 and portage carriers, likewise with provisions for the 

 entire party for the whole season during which the tour is 

 to last, he starts on his voyage of discovery. Of course 

 in such regions he has either no map at all or some mere 

 rough sketch, so that he needs to construct the topo- 

 graphy as well as the geology of his charts. Ascending 

 the river which has been chosen, the party halts each 

 night at some favourable creek and sleeps under cloaks 

 or skins upon the shore. Sir William Logan used to 

 sleep in a sack on the beach of Lake Superior, with his 

 head stuck out of the mouth of it, and after tucking him- 

 self in would sometimes need to creep out again to knock 

 off the edge of some protuberant rock, and thus literally 

 to smooth his bed with his hammer. Expertness as a 

 shot forms a valuable qualification in one of these ex- 

 plorers, and enables himself and his comrades now and 

 then to enjoy the luxury of fresh meat. Great trouble 

 often arises with the Indian attendants. Sometimes they 

 cannot be had at all, and when obtained are apt to depart 

 at a moment's notice, leaving the white men to manage 

 their journey as they best can. 



The Report of the Canadian Survey for 1S72-73 bears 

 the stamp of the same thorough unostentatious work 

 which has characterised the whole of the long series of 

 Reports from 1S43 downwards. In such a yearly summary 

 of progress we cannot expect the completeness of a 

 finished memoir. The observers merely chronicle what 

 they have seen in the tracts visited by them. But on this 

 account their Reports arc probably all the surer an index 

 to their powers of rapid observation and of grasping main 

 features of geological structure. In this aspect Mr. 

 Richardson's Report, On the coalfields of Vancouver 

 and Oueen Charlotte Islands, deserves high commenda- 

 tion. By the time he could get himself transported across 

 the continent to San Francisco, and thence by steamer to 

 the part of Vancouver Island where his explorations were 

 to be made, it was the beginning of July, and the heavy 

 rains began before the end of September. In spite of 

 wind and wet, however, he stuck to his work, and after 

 storing away his boat, tent, and camp-equipage for next 

 year's service, set out once more on his long journey, and 

 reached Montreal in the middle of December. During 

 these few and interrupted months he added considerably 

 to what was previously known regarding the secondary 



coalfields of that part of America, made a number of 

 careful measurements of the thicknesses of the strata, and 

 brought home many fossils, both plant and animal, new to 

 science. 



He found that the coal-bearing rocks lie upon a vast 

 depth of older crystalline masses among which he de- 

 tected fossiliferous limestones. This metamorphosed series 

 he estimates at somewhere about 17,000 ft. in thickness- 

 When the fossils were submitted to Mr. Billings, that able 

 pateontologist found them too obscurely preserved to 

 warrant a definite opinion as to their age. From his 

 reference of some of the corals to such genera as Zaph- 

 reiitis, and the occurrence oi Prodiictus, Spirifcr, and /vv^t'j'- 

 te.lla, the rocks would at least seem to be certainly Upper 

 Palaeozoic, though he does not go further than to suggest 

 that they may be "either Permian or Carboniferous, more 

 probably the latter." On this great mctamorphic group 

 the coal-bearing rocks rest unconformably. To these 

 rocks Mr. Richardson assigns a thickness of 5,000 ft. 

 They consist of various shales, sandstones, shell-bearing 

 limestones, and conglomerates with intercalated seams of 

 coal, very much resembling apparently some parts of our 

 Carboniferous sections in Britain. Their geological posi- 

 tion appears to be about the parallel of our Cretaceous 

 and perhaps the upper part of our Jurassic series. Among 

 the plants Dr. Dawson finds some forms of cypress and 

 yew, cycads and ferns, with species of oak, birch, and 

 poplar, and remarks that these fossils furnish additional 

 evidence of a fact already noticed, " that in the Cretaceous 

 period the generic types of American trees were as well 

 marked as at present." Among the shells, Mr. Billings 

 finds 16 species of Ammonites, 2 of Belemnites, a Nau- 

 tilus, 4 Gasteropods, and 9 genera of Lamellibranchs, the 

 general facies of the whole being decidedly Cretaceous 

 and Upper Jurassic. He admits the view of the States 

 geologists to be substantially correct, that the coal of 

 Vancouver Island belongs to one of the Cretacous groups 

 which is developed in northern California and Oregon. 

 At the same time the fossil evidence suggests that while 

 the Vancouver beds may be Upper Cretaceous, those of 

 the Oueen Charlotte Islands are partly Lower Cretaceous 

 and partly Upper Jurassic. From the fact that the fossils 

 in the Cretaceous formations on the west side of the 

 Rocky Mountains are specifically different from those on 

 the east side, Mr. Billings suggests the former existence 

 of a land-barrier down the American continent on 

 which the abundant Cretaceous flora flourished. 



The route followed by Mr. Bell, of which an account is 

 criven in this Report (On the country between Lake 

 Superior and Lake Winnipeg), presented comparatively 

 little of general interest, though it gave scope for the 

 same methodical and careful work for which his previous 

 reports are distinguished. One fact deserves notice 

 among his remarks, namely, that he has confirmed his 

 previous observations of a great conformable series of 

 metamorphosed Huronian rocks resting upon the Lau- 

 rentian gneiss. Mr. Selwyn suggests that the conform- 

 ability may be only local and deceptive. This is certainly 

 a matter deserving attentive examination. Mr. McOuat 

 contributes a well-written Report on the country between 

 Lakes Temiscamang and Abbitibbe, where he was busy 

 tracing the relations of some of the metamorphic rocks 

 there to those on Lakes Huron and Superior. Mr. Ven- 



