54 Eminent Living Geologists : Dr. A. R. C. Selicyn. 



Mr. Selvvyn's geological services were, however, far too valuable 

 to be permitted to lie fallow for any length of time, and on the 

 retirement of his old friend Sir William Logan, that same year 

 (1869), from the office of Director of the Canadian Geological and 

 Natural History Survey, Montreal, Logan recommended the Canadian 

 Government to appoint Selwyn as his successor, a piece of advice 

 which they at once accepted and acted upon. 



Although, from the commencement of his geological career, 

 Selwyn's life had been one of almost incessant and active labour in 

 the field and in the office, he could scarcely have found a more 

 energetic man to follow after than Sir William Logan, or a wider 

 field to travel over than the Dominion of Canada. This territory is 

 nearly as large as Europe, stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific 

 Ocean, and is estimated to contain a total area of 3,315,64:7 square 

 miles, exclusive of the great lakes and rivers. 



His stafi^, though small, included such well-known geologists as 

 Mr. James Richardson, Dr. Robert Bell, Dr. T. Sterry Hunt, the 

 present Director (Dr. G. M. Dawson, C.M.G.), J. B. Tyrrell, J. F. 

 Whiteaves, B. J. Harrington, H. M. Ami, A. H. Foord, and some 

 others, Mr. E. Billings being the chief palaeontologist. 



During the 25 years, from 1869 to 1894, that Mr. Selwyn filled 

 the office of Director of the Geological Survey of Canada, twenty 

 large volumes of Annual Reports, with accompanying maps and 

 sections, were issued from the Survey Offices in Montreal or later on 

 from Ottawa. In addition to these, five other volumes were published 

 by Billings, Macoun, and Dawson on Invertebrata and Plants ; 

 four fascicules by A. H. Foord, E. 0. Ulrich, T. Rupert Jones, and 

 Dr. Riist on Micropaleeontology ; and four by J. F. Whiteaves on 

 Palaeozoic and Mesozoic fossils. 



Notwithstanding the arduous administrative duties which Selwyn 

 was called to fulfil in planning out the work to be carried on by his 

 staff, and arranging all matters relating to the expenditure of his 

 grant, as well as in editing the reports of his assistants and writing 

 his own, he yet found time to traverse and personally explore large 

 extents of unmapped territory. This was at a time when maps were 

 few and bad, when no railways and but few roads existed, and long 

 journeys had to be perfoi-med by boat or in the saddle, and often on 

 foot, in order to reach points of vantage for geological and trigono- 

 metrical surveying. Add to all this the necessity of having to camp 

 out and carry supplies sufficient for three months, and one begins to 

 realize that a geologist's life in a large and mainly unexplored 

 country, such as the backwoods of Canada, is not always an 

 altogether happy one. 



In addition to these arduous duties, the Dominion Government 

 called upon Mr. Selwyn to act as Assistant to the Canadian 

 Commissioners at the Centennial Exhibition held in Philadelphia 

 in 1876, at the Pai-is Universal Exhibition in 1878, and at the 

 Colonial and Indian Exhibition in London in 1886 ; involving an 

 enormous amount of labour, and including the prepai-ation of 

 •descriptive catalogues of the economic minerals and notes on the 



