474 Reviews—Life of Sir W. E. Logan. 
T].—Lirs or Sir Wituiam E. Logan, Kt., LL.D., F.R.S., F.GS., 
etc., First Director of the Geological Survey of Canada. By 
Bernarp J. Harrineton, B.A., Ph.D., Professor of Mining in 
M‘Gill University. 8vo. pp. 482. With Portrait and 29 other 
Illustrations. (London: Sampson Low & Co., 1883.) 
EW men born at the dawn of the present century deserve a 
higher place in the annals of geology than the late Sir William 
Logan, the subject of this volume. His life extended over the most 
important period of the development and growth of Geology and he 
himself took by no means an insignificant part in securely laying 
down the grand foundation of facts on which that science now 
securely rests. 
A Scotsman by parentage but born in Montreal in 1798, he com- 
pleted his education at Edinburgh, and having early displayed a love 
for geological pursuits, he commenced (in 1831) in South Wales a 
study of the structure of the Coal-fields of that region. The detailed 
work which he then achieved during seven years was generously 
handed over by him to Sir H. T. de la Beche, and incorporated in 
the Maps of the Government Geological Survey of that area. 
It was whilst mapping these South Wales Coal-beds that Logan 
made a most important observation on the origin of coal, then but 
little understood. He pointed out that each coal-seam rests on an 
‘“‘under-clay ” or “ fire-clay,” in which rootlets of Siigmaria branch 
freely in all directions. This association of coal and Stigmaria-clay 
he found to be se constant that he was led to the conclusion that the 
clay represented the ancient soil or mud in which the Stigmaria 
grew, and that the coal was the result of the accumulated growth 
and decay of the matted vegetation which had once lived upon that 
soil. Looking back, after a lapse of forty years, we are astonished 
at the brilliance of Logan’s early deduction, which served to throw 
so clear a light upon the nature and origin of coal, and entitles its 
author to our highest esteem as a most careful and accurate observer. 
After protracted attempts to secure for Canada the benefit of a 
Geological Survey of its territory, the provincial legislature at 
length, in 1842, reluctantly voted the sum of £1500 for the purpose, 
and we are not surprised to find that De la Beche, Buckland, 
Sedgwick and Murchison were unanimous in recommending Logan 
for the post of Provincial Geologist. 
From his appointment in 1842 to 1869 when he retired, Logan’s 
entire time, bodily and mental energies, and not unfrequently his 
private resources also, were expended in carrying out the survey of 
his native country; a truly “Herculean task” as Sedgwick observed. 
He lived however to produce an admirable map of Canada geolo- 
gically coloured, and based in great part upon sheets topographically 
surveyed by himself. He also had the laborious honour remitted to 
him of representing Canada as Special Commissioner at the Ist 
Great Exhibition in London in 1851, in Paris in 1855, and again 
in London in 1862. 
During his long experience as a Geological Surveyor, Sir William 
Logan had frequently to perform the painful task of disabusing the 
