84 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE, 



work he was tlie Professor of Geology of Trinity University here, and he had for 

 many years edited the journal of this Institute. After completing the publication 

 of the official reports and maps and the other publications which resulted from his 

 expeditions he, in 1861, visited Labrador, the results of his exploration reaching the 

 public in a work published as a private venture* similar in style to the London 

 editions of the Red River and Saskatchewan Expeditions. In 1864 he was 

 authorized to begin a new survey of New Brunswick the only result of which 

 reached the public in the following year.f 



We do not find that Nova Scotia ever attempted a geological survey. Reports 

 generally in the shape of legislative documents on her coal and gold mines have 

 been made by J. W. Dawson, Joseph Howe, Henry How, Henry Poole, J. Campbell, 

 David Honeyman, Henry Youle Hind and John Rutherford, but the work in general 

 geology has been done by men who published the results of their investigations at 

 their own expense. In addition to the labours of Dr. Gesner in Nova Scotia 

 we find that in 1832, Charles T. Jackson, afterwards State Geologist of Maine 

 and Rhode Island, assisted by F. Alger, made a report on Nova Scotia| and Dr. , 

 now Sir J. William Dawson, in addition to a handbook in 1848, which went into at 

 least six editions, published in 1855 the well known Acadian Geology|| of which 

 there have been three editions, the third in 1878. 



In 1873 Henry Alleyne Nicholson, then Professor of Natural History of the 

 University of Toronto, aided by a small grant from the Government of Ontario, 

 made collections of fossils in the Province, and in 1874 and 1875 published reports 

 on the " Palaeontology of Ontario," with several plates and other illustrations. 

 These reports, perhaps the most valuable publications of the Government of the 

 Province, are now so scarce as to be out of the reach of most students interested in 

 geology, although indispensable until something more comprehensive appears. 

 Unfortunately the descriptions and illustrations of many of the more difficult forms 

 collected by Professor Nicholson do not appear in these reports but are published 

 in expensive journals and other scientific works in England and Scotland, of which 

 very few copies are to be found — in some cases literally only two or three — in all 

 Canada. Since the excitement in mining has influenced the public, some of the 

 provinces have established Mining Bureaus, and while these are a very inadequate 

 substitute for regular geological and natural history surveys we owe a debt of 

 gratitude to those who have induced unwilling governments to do even this much. 

 The most important series of publications of this nature are those of the Ontario 

 Bureau of Mines, which was created by legislation in 1891 and the publications of 

 which have now reached the eighth volume. Under the guidance of its director, 

 our worthy member Mr. Archibald Blue, it will no doubt grow year by year, 

 limited in scope only by the liberality of the Government of Ontario. Ministers of 

 the Crown in this province need not blind themselves to the fact, however, that 

 since 1867, that is for thirty-two years, such material aud intellectual interests in 

 this province as would be represented by a proper survey and public museum, and 

 which, down to Confederation, were being so excellently looked after by Sir William 

 Logan, have been persistently neglected. The next publication regarding mines 

 in importance is that of British Columbia. The Bureau of Mines of that province 

 was established by legislation in 1895 and published its first bulletin in June, 1896. 

 The annual reports for 1896 and 1897, published in 1897 and 1898, respectively, 

 are very creditable productions, quite superior as to printing and illustrations to 

 those of Ontario. 



Now if we gather together the pre-Confederation work of Canada, New Bruns- 

 wick and other provinces, and the publications by provinces since Confederation, 

 including the Mining Bureaus, and compare the entire result with any one of say 

 five or six of the leading States in the United States, the result must make us both 

 astonished and ashamed. But if we add all the work done by the Dominion Survey 



* " Explorations in the Interior of the Labrador Peninsula," etc, H. Y. Hind. 2 vols , London, 1863. 



t " Preliminary Report on the Geolog-J' of New Brunswick." Hind. Fredencton, 1865. 



t "Mineralogy and Geology of the Province of Nova Scotia." C.T.Jackson and F. Alger. Cambridge, 

 Mass., 1832, 



II "Acadian Geologj' ; an Account of the Geological Structure and Mineral Resources of Nova Scotia," etc, 

 J. W. Dawson. Edinburgh and London, 1855- 



