200 



A EEPLY TO AN ARTICLE IN THE JUNE NUMBER OP THE CANADIAN JOURNAL. 



[1855 



miglit lay mo open to a charge of self-laudation — with my replies. 

 Were Mr. Logan now in Canada, I am quite sure that he would give 

 me such a testimonial as would refute in itself to the full, these 

 unworthy attacks. One thing at least must strilie us as rather 

 curious, if we he inclined to adopt the conclusions of my a.nony- 

 moilS assailant. How came it, I would ask, that, after I made this 

 lamentable exhibition of myself at Quebec, Mr. Logan was so 

 wanting in judgment as actually to request me to undertake in his 

 name, on account of the survey, a geological inquiry into the pretended 

 occurrence of coal in this part of the country. The inquiry, as things 

 turned out, was certainly not a very diiEcult one ; but that has nothing 

 to do with the question. The bare fact of my having been asked to 

 undertake it, is a sufficient recognition of my capability by Mr. Logan ; 

 more especially when he subsequently had the kindness to declare 

 himself well pleased with the manner in which I performed his com- 

 mission. I trust that I may not be accused here of egotism ; but, even 

 at that risk, I am induced to bring this matter prominently forward, 

 as a direct answer to the anonymous imputations attempted to be cast 

 upon me. I stated above, that only a portion of my reply to the 

 question at issue. No. 55, was given, I now take the liberty to subjoin 

 the remainder : — 



" The study of organic remains, again, is sometimes thought by 

 persons unacquainted with the whole bearings of the question, to have 

 little or no connexion with the practical applications of Geology ; but 

 this is altogether an erroneous conclusion. Fossils or organic remains 

 have a two-fold value ; first, in revealing to vis the history of past 

 creations, and many of the physical changes which our Planet has 

 gone through : and, secondly, in enabling us to determine the relative 

 position of rock groups ; each group, within certain limits, holding its 

 own peculiar forms. Now, it is well known that certain economic 

 products are confined over wide areas, either wholly or principally, to 

 certain rocks. To fix the exact positions of these rocks, therefore, in 

 the entire series of strata, becomes a problem of the highest importance, 

 and one, it may be safely affirmed, that in nine cases out of ten, can 

 only be solved by the study of organic remains. In North America, for 

 instance, we have many bands of rock stretching far and wide across the 

 continent. One of these is remarkable for its richness in brine springs 

 and gypsum beds ; and by the fossil forms in the bands above and be- 

 low this, it can be ascertained at points far distant from one another, 

 if we be above or below, near or distant from, the salt and gypsum 

 yielding rock ; whereas, if mineral characters alone were attended to, 

 no reliance could be put on any decisions of the kind. In like manner, 

 the position of the Mountain limestone, so rich in many countries in 

 veins of lead ore, of the coal-bearing rocks, again, and of all the other 

 rocks in the series, however closely resembling one another in structure 

 and mineral composition, can be determined with perfect confidence if 

 sufficient Palseontological data be afforded. "We thus see that a study 

 apparently only of scientific value, and one worked out in the first 

 instance by scientific researches, has become of the highest iinportance 

 in a purely practical point of view. In England, as in all other coun- 

 tries indeed, many striking examples may be found of what the study of 

 organic remains has effected for practical science. In rocks far beneath 

 the coal measures, as well as in others far above them, I have seen old 

 shafts, for instance, which must have swallowed up thousands of pounds, 

 still remaining as memorials of futile researches after coal, before 

 geology was prosecuted as a science." 



The next question adverted to by my anonymous assailant, is Question 

 47 of the Minutes of Evidence. In his remarks on my answer to this 

 question, he betrays in a remarkable manner either the greatest 

 obtuseness, or a degree of uncharitableness that no law of criticism 

 can excuse. Jly character for veracity is here seriously impeached, 

 and in the most wanton manner. The question runs as follows : — • 



"47. Have you had an opportunity of ascertaining the progress that 

 has been made in the Geological Survey of this Province ; and what is 

 your opinion of that progress ? — Atis. I have devoted several days to a 

 very careful examination of the work already performed, and the 

 materials collected under Mr. Logan's direction ; and I can only 

 express my wonder that so much should have been done ; considering 

 more especially the small means hitherto at Jlr. Logan's disposal, the 

 want of Topographical maps, and other difficulties incidental to a new 

 country." 



To this the anonymous reviewer appends the following remarks : — 

 "No one would suppose that a just appreciation of the value of the 

 results already obtained by the survey, could be derived from an 

 inspection even during broad day-light of the minerals collected, 

 as they may have been obtained from localities commercially inacces- 

 sible ; but, when they "lie in a great measure, buried in packing-cases 



in the vaults and sheds of the Survey Office, (see Report of Committee) 

 the difficulty is proportionately increased. It is only by a study 

 of the published reports of the work already done, that correct 

 impressions can be obtained of the real value of the Survey. We 

 confess, therefore, to some degree of surprise at finding Mr. Chapman 

 state in the continuation of his evidence, that "several of Mr. Logan's 

 valuable reports, moreover, are out of print, and / have been quite 

 unable to obtain copies of them." 



Answering the last allusion first, I may observe that it is one thing 

 not to be able to obtain copies of these Eeports, and another not to 

 have seen them.* It was in answer to quite a different question (No. 

 49) that I expressed the desirableness of having these Reports revised 

 and republished in a single volume ; and to show how scarce they had 

 become,' I stated my inability to procure copies of several of them. 

 But what has this to do with my appreciation of Mr. Logan's labours? 

 All of the Reports were at my disposal at Montreal ; and, if I be not 

 greatly mistalcen, we had them with us in the waiting-room attached 

 to the committee-room at Quebec. 



The main question here turns, however, on my ability to speak to 

 the value of the actual labours and achievements of the Survey. " No 

 one," says the sagacious reviewer, "would suppose that a just appre- 

 ciation of the results already obtained by the Survey, could be derived 

 'from an inspection even during broad day-light, of the minerals 

 collected, as they may have been obtained from localities commercially 

 inaccessible; but, when they lie in a great measure buried in packing- 

 cases in the vaults and sheds of the Survey Office, the difficulty is 

 proportionately increased." From whence did the anonymous reviewer 

 derive his authority that my appreciation of the value of the Survey 

 was drawn from this source ? He would here manifestly imply that I 

 had given false evidence, or what is the same thing, that I had borne 

 testimony to the value of the Survey without knowing anything that 

 had been done upon it. 



I feel, certainly, a keen sense of degradation in being obliged to 

 reply at all to such a charge. But how did I obtain my knowledge ? 

 Simply thus, by a close and laborious examination of plans, sections, 

 field-books, and other documents, both published and unpublished, 

 laid before me, and carefully and minutely explained by Mr. Logan in 

 person. If it be any satisfaction to my assailant, I am not too conceited 

 to confess, that I gleaned a rich harvest of geological facts, apart from 

 those more especially belonging to our subject of inquiry. Such, then, 

 — not omitting also a general examination of a large portion of the 

 materials collected on the Survey, and at that time under process of 

 arrangement in different rooms belonging to the Museum — was the 

 way in which my knowledge was obtained. If we add to this my 

 acquaintance with the mode of procedure adopted on the Geological 

 Survey of Great Britain (see my answers to Questions 45 and 46, and 

 part of Mr. Logan's answer to Question 70), it must be evident to every 

 impartial person that I was perfectly qualified to reply on these points 

 to the inquiries of the Committee. 



My anonymous assailant then proceeds to a discussion of my answer 

 to Question 54. He says : — 



" Jlr. Chapman is asked by the Committee to state some of the new 

 Scientific Truths which have been derived from the Survey, and he " 

 enumerated among others the following: — " Another very interesting 

 discovery is that of the crustacean tracks on the Potsdam Sandstone. 

 The celebrated discussion to which this has given rise in England has 

 attracted the attention of scientific men all over Europe to the results 

 of the Survey." Had Mr. Chapman enjoyed the opportunity of studying 

 Mr. Logan's admirable Report for 1851 and '52 he would have known 

 the name and designation of the real discoverer ; or had he met with 

 the fourth edition (1852) of Sir Charles Lyell's Manual of Elementary 

 Geology he would have found the following circumstantial notice of the 

 " tracks," with the date of the discovery, and thus avoided leading the 

 Committee into error on a subject familiar to every amateur geologist 

 in Canada." 



Here follows the quotation from Lyell's book, with the accompanying 

 remarks at its close: — "We may here remark that Professor Owen 

 first inferred (1851) that the tracks were those of a fresh water or 

 estuary tortoise. Agassiz supposed that they were crustacean, in 



* In illustration of this, one would think, self-evident assertion, I 

 may remark, that before I left England I procured a copy of the second 

 volume of Hall's Palfeontology of New York, and that I am still trying, 

 but without'success, to get a copy of the first volume. At the same 

 time we have the work in our College Library ; so that without actually 

 possessing it I have become perfectly familiar with its contents. 



