34 Geological Survey of Canada. 



plains of Canada, and might therefore be regarded as a favour- 

 able point for bringing the wealth and population of the more 

 valuable parts of the province to bear on the improvement of the 

 rocky and intractable Laurentian country. It seems inconceivable 

 that any civilized Government in settling such a question should 

 leave out of sight those geological conditions which determine 

 beforehand the resources and population of countries. A glance 

 at the beautiful little map attached to the essay prepared by Sir 

 William and Mr. Hunt for the Paris exhibition, is sufficient to show 

 that this important element of the question admits of no other in- 

 terpretation than that which we have given ; and taking this into 

 account, it would be extreme folly to place the capital of a great 

 and fertile country in the midst of a desolate region, apparently 

 destined through all time to have a comparatively sparse and poor 

 population, unless with some such view as that above hinted. 



All this depends however, on the relative extent, within the 

 Laurentian region, of rocks capable of affording fertile soils ; and 

 in the present report Sir W. E. Logan has addressed himself to 

 this question. We shall give his results, so important to a cor- 

 rect estimate of this great subject, in his own words : — 



" Limestone and Lime-feldspars. — The crystalline limestones of 

 the Laurentian series are quite as good for all the economic pur- 

 poses to which carbonate of lime is applied, as the earthy lime- 

 stones of the fossiliferous formations. It is from the latter, how- 

 ever, that is obtained nine-tenths of the material used throughout 

 the country, for the very good reason that more than nine-tenths 

 of the works of construction, both public and private, are raised 

 upon the fossiliferous rocks, and for such present works these 

 rocks therefore afford the nearest sources of supply. Thus the in- 

 habitants are well acquainted with the aspect of the fossiliferous 

 limestones, and can easily recognise them, but very few of them 

 understand the nature of the highly crystalline calcareous beds of 

 the Laurentian series. Hence it is that settlers in the back town- 

 ships, who have dwelt many years upon these rocks, have been 

 accustomed, when in want of lime for the manufacture of potash, 

 or the construction of their chimneys, to send to the fossiliferous 

 deposits for it — the distance being sometimes thirty miles — when 

 it might have been obtained at their own doors. In following 

 out the calcareous bands of the gneiss district, in 1853, therefore, 

 especial pains were taken to point out their character to the 

 settlers, wherever exposures were met with ; and in visiting some 

 of the same localities last season, I had the satisfaction of finding 

 lime-kilns erected, and lime burnt in four of them. 



