1855.] REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OP CAJS^ADA. 251 



person in the Province. In addition to this means of placing 

 before the public the information already obtained, he strongly 

 recommended that the Museum already commenced should be 

 advanced as rapidly as consistent with the other duties of the 

 Geologist. The object in this collection should be the forma- 

 tion of a JIuseum of Economic and Scientific Geology, where 

 specimens of all the Mineral products of the Province should 

 have a place ; and where those of Economic interest should be 

 presented in a proper arrangement, not only in their natural 

 state, but also in their wrought or manufactured condition. — 

 This Mu.seum should be open to the public. This plan would 

 render available at an early period a great part of the informa- 

 tion and materials already collected by the survey. The pub- 

 lication of the results of the Sui-vey, as the materials accumu- 

 lated, was recommended,:^since by such a course the Canadian 

 Survey will receive due credit for such discoveries, and confer 

 a, benefit upon science by their speedy publication ■ whereas by 

 leaving the publication till a later period, the same discoveries 

 may be made and published elsewhere. 



A sound basis of scientific investigation is of the highest 

 importance in leading to practical results. Mr. Hall said that 

 he conceived that no practical or economic results of great 

 value are likely to arise except those based upon scientific in- 

 vestigations. The great lead-bearing formation of the States 

 of Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa was instanced. For many 

 years a seiious misapprehension esLsted in regard to the trae 

 position of the lead-bearing rock ; and only so late as 1850 

 was it determined, by a proper examination of its organic re- 

 mains, that instead of its being in the Niagara group, as for- 

 mei'ly supposed, it belongs to a much lower series of rocks, viz., 

 a Lower Silurian Limestone. This erroneous impression gave 

 rise to fruitless searches for Lead ore in the Niagara limestone, 

 which this late information will discourage. There are at this 

 time multitudes of practical miners, who know at once, by the 

 occurrence of certain Fossils, the presence of the Lead-bearing 

 rock, and who would never think of searching for Lead ore in 

 any rock where these Fossils do not exist. 



During fifty years previous to the commencement of the 

 Survey in the State of New York, not less than one million 

 dollars had been expended in abortive search for coal, where a 

 well-informed Geologist would have at once pronounced the 

 undertaking useless, and certain to prove a failure. 



With reference to the 3Iineral wealth of Canada, Jlr. Hall 

 stated that "from a knowledge of the great Geological features 

 of Canada, derived chiefly from the Reports of Mr. Logan, as 

 well as from some cursoiy observations of my own, I infer that 

 the Countiy is rich in all those Mineral products (with the 

 exception probably of coal,) which lie at the foundation of 

 modern progress and civilization. Without enumeration, I 

 need only refer to the list of Economic Materials given in the 

 Geological Report of 1849-50, and to the display of mineral 

 products in the Canadian department of the Grand Industrial 

 Exhibition of London in 1851. I might mention, however, 

 the immense area of the Geological formation composing the 

 Laurentine mountains on the north of the St. Lawrence, hav- 

 ing a length of one thousand miles by a breadth of one hun- 

 dred miles, in which occur deposits of magnetic Iron Ore, the 

 most extensive and valuable in the known world. This ore, so 

 fiimous in Sweden for the manufacture of steel, is associated 

 in the same formation with specular Iron Ore, Galena, Plum- 

 bago, indications of Conmdum, and other mineral products. 

 Succeeding this, you have a large area of Copper bearing 

 rocks of the Lake Superior region, in which both Copper and 

 Silver occur. You have also some foi-ty or fifty thousand 



square miles of country on the south of the St. Lawrence, 

 composed of Metamorphic rocks of a later age. Ten thou- 

 sand square miles of this area have been shown to contain 

 Gold, and the entire formation abounds in Magnetic and Spe- 

 cular Iron Ores, Chromic Iron, Copper Ore, Serpentine, 

 Marble, Soapstone, Roofing Slates, and many other economic 

 products. In the other formations, comprising half the entire 

 area of Canada, are abundance of Limestones and other build- 

 ing stones. Clays, Ochres, Bog Iron Ores, Asphalt, Gypsum, 

 &c., &c. 



" Compared with the neighbouring States, Canada stands 

 before any one of the United States, except those containing 

 coal ; but taking all the States upon her borders together, the 

 comparison in everything, except coal, is very nearly- equal, if 

 we compare equal areas of country." 



The next witness examined was Professor E. J. Chapman, 

 of University College, Toronto. 



Ques. — ^" Have you ever been practically engaged in any 

 Geological Suiweys ? Ans. — " Yes, in several ; princiijallT/ 

 for Ralhcay and Water Companies. I have also taken part 

 in Mining SuiTeys ; and I may mention, as lending more 

 weight to my evidence on this occasion, that I am the author 

 of several works on Mineralogy, and of a considerable number 

 of published papers on IMineralogy, Mineral Chemistiy, and Geo- 

 logy, many of which have been translated into foreign scien- 

 tific Journals." We may, perhaps, be permitted to question 

 whether the implied comparison between a Geological Sui-vey 

 for " Railway and Water Companies," and the Geological Sur- 

 vey of Canada — a vast country containing 300,000 square 

 miles — is either philosophical or just ; a doubt which is for from 

 being dispelled by the perusal of the question and answer sub- 

 joined, in which " waterway.s," " millstreams," and "dumb- 

 wells" are brought forward as illustrations to sustain the pro- 

 secution of an inquiiy which, though it may cost the country 

 fifty thousand pounds, will at the same time add immeasur- 

 ably to its wealth and its science. 



Can you give instances from your own experience in such surveys of 

 tile practical importance of results which at first sight might appear 

 to be exclusively of scientific interest ? Ans. Many instances of this 

 kind are well known to Geologists, some have come under my own 

 observation ; when a railway crosses a stream in England, the law 

 compels the Company to make the water-way sufficiently large to 

 prevent the land around from being flooded duiing times of heavy rain, 

 or from the melting of the snow. It is very frequently inconvenient 

 to the Engineer to make the water-ways larger than is absolutely 

 necessary ; and the usual method of procedure is to measure the nearest 

 existing water-ways, ascertaining at the same time from persons living 

 near the spot, if these be of sufficient size to admit at all times the 

 flow of water through them. AVhen engaged some years ago in this 

 kind of work, 1 was surprised to find the water-ways over a small 

 stream quite insufficient to prevent flooding, when from another stream 

 in the same locality with smaller water-ways, no flooding took place ; 

 the physical aspect of the country exhibiting no cause for the ditlcrcnce 

 in question, but rather tending the other way. On examining the 

 district geologically, however, the problem was explained at once. 

 The hills and higher ground along the one stream were capped with 

 stiff impermeable clay ; along the other, with gravel. All the rain 

 which fell upon the clay, apart from that taken up by vegetation, ran 

 oflf into the stream ; whilst the greater part of the rainfall upon tho 

 gravel was absorbed by tho porous nature of the soil. Kow had a 

 gcolof/ical survei/ of such a district been made before the erection of bridges, 

 it uould have shewn that the water-ways over the one stream must have 

 been very much larger than those over the other, if flooding were to be 

 avoided. 



Another case, much of the same kind, came nnder my notice more 

 lately, whilst prosecuting some Geological inquiries in Hertfordshire. 

 A miller inquired of me why tho stream on which his mill was situated, 

 after having been at one time sufficient to drive eight pairs of stones, 

 had gradually become unable to drive more tian three pairs ; thus 



