Ivi PROCEEDINGS. 



an industrious collector. In 1836 he published his well-known 

 "Remarks on the Geology and Mineralogy of Nova Scotia" 

 which immediately brought him into notice. It was par- 

 ticularly full in its observations on the trap district of the 

 Bay of Fundy. From about 1838 till about 1843-4 he was 

 provincial geologist of New Brunswick, and established at 

 St. John the Gesner Museum, afterwards purchased by the 

 Natural History Society of New Brunswick. Returning to 

 Cornwallis, he wrote "New Brunswick, with notes for Emi- 

 grants" and "Industrial Resources of Nova Scotia". In 

 1850 he removed to Sackville, N. B., and in 1852 to Halifax. 

 Two years later he patented a process for extracting an 

 illuminating oil from coal and other bituminous substances, 

 which he at first called 'keroselene,' a name subsequently 

 shortened to kerosene. After 1855 he devoted much of his 

 time to the production of kerosene oil, lived in the United 

 States, and published in 1861 his 'Coal, Petroleum and other 

 Distilled Oils'. He finally returned to Halifax in 1863. 

 He was a fellow of the Geological Society of London (1840), 

 corresponding member of the Royal Geographical Society of 

 Cornwell and of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Phila- 

 delphia, and member of the Georgraphical Society of New 

 York. He and Webster were the first students of science who 

 had been born in the province. [See Gesner, A. T. : Gesner 

 Family of New York and Nova Scotia, Middletown, Conn., 

 1912, pp. 11-13; Gesner, G. W. : Dr. Abraham Gesner, a 

 biographical sketch: Bulletin of the Nat. Hist. Soc. of 

 New Brunswick, vol. xiv, (1896), pp. 1-11, with portrait; 

 Matthew, G. F. : Abraham Gesner, a review of his scientific 

 work: Bull. Nat. Hist. Soc. New Brunswick, vol. xv (1897) 

 pp. 3-48.] 



William Bennet Webster, M. D., M. P. P., mineral- 

 ogist, a man of lesser scientific note, was born at Kentville, 

 N. S., 18th January, 1798, and died at Halifax, 4th April, 

 1861. Like Gesner he gave his spare moments to col- 



