Alexander M urray. 87 
which he took have been found of great service in fixing 
positions in many parts of old Canada and Newfoundland. 
His surveys of Lake Nipissing and the various channels of 
French River, made in several different years, were 
found sufficiently accurate for the purpose of the Ottawa 
Ship Canal Survey, and were adopted by the engineers of 
that project—Shanly, Clark, Perry, Norman and Galway— 
who gave him credit for the use they had made of them. 
In 1842 the Geological Survey of Canada was instituted 
by the government, on a_ petition of the Natural 
History Society of Montreal, made at the suggestion of the 
late Rev. Dr. Mathieson. Mr. (afterwards) Sir W. HE. 
Logan was appointed provincial geologist, but owing to 
unfulfilled business engagements in England he asked for 
leave of absence and spent the winter of 1842-43 in the old 
country. Here he appears to have first met with the 
subject of our sketch in the beginning of 1843, and to have 
engaged him as his assistant. Little is known of Murray’s 
early studies as a geologist, but even when a midshipman 
he appears to have had a taste for the science, and had some 
practical training under Sir Henry T. De la Beche, with 
whom he served on the Geological Survey of Great Britain 
during 1841; while his nautical education had already fitted 
him to undertake topographical surveying. He arrived in 
Canada in May, 1843, and immediately commenced opera- 
tions in the western province, while Logan returned from 
England, by Halifax, the same spring. On his arrival the 
latter proceeded to the north-western part of Nova Scotia and 
measured the celebrated section of the Carboniferous rocks 
at the Joggins, near the head of the Bay of Fundy, which 
is published in detail in the Report of Progress for 1843. 
He then went to the eastern part of Gaspé and examined 
the coast in detail from Cape Rosier to Paspebiac. This 
was the commencement of the Geological Survey, which . 
has since been extended to nearly all parts of the northern 
half of the continent. 
Murray wrote little for publication besides his official 
reports to the governments of Canada and Newfoundland. 
