ANNIVERSARY MEETING. WOLLASTON MEDAL. XXUi 



years from 1845. In 1850 the grant was again renewed under 

 the government of Lord Elgin for a similar period. 



When we consider the circumstances connected with carrying 

 out a geological investigation in a new country like Canada, where 

 the progress of civilization has not yet cleared the ground of its 

 primaeval forests, where the geographer has not yet prepared the 

 way for the geologist by the construction of correct and trustworthy 

 maps, and where commerce and social intercourse have not yet pre- 

 pared the means of communication, we may form some idea of the 

 vast difficulties with which Sir William Logan has had to contend, 

 and which he has so successfully overcome. A considerable portion 

 of the Canadian territory has already been geologically surveyed by 

 Sir William Logan and Mr. Murray, assisted by Mr. Richardson. 

 It appears that up to 1854 the explorations embraced the shores of 

 Lakes Superior and Huron, as well as the great western basin of 

 Canada, the valley of the St. Lawrence, as far as the Gulf, to- 

 gether with numerous other valleys, as the Richelieu, Yamaska, 

 Saint Francois, and Chaudiere, together with a large portion of Lower 

 Canada south of the St. Lawrence, including the district of Gaspe. 



Having placed himself in communication with Mr. James Hall of 

 New York, who is about to publish a geological map of the United 

 States on the same scale as that of Canada, Sir William Logan has 

 adopted the same subdivision of formations as that already eni~ 

 ployed by Mr. Hall in the palaeozoic district of the United States ; we 

 shall thus have the advantage of seeing these two maps constructed 

 on the same plan, an arrangement of great importance for the future 

 examination of the American continent; and Sir William Logan 

 deserves great praise for thus adopting a nomenclature already in- 

 troduced, instead of endeavouring to establish a new one of his own. 



I can give no better evidence of the value of this survey and 

 of the manner in which it has been carried on by Sir William Logan 

 than by quoting the testimony of an American writer in Silliman's 

 Journal*. It is there stated : "No geological survey on this conti- 

 nent has been carried on with more thoroughness and with results 

 of higher importance to the science than those of Canada under the 

 direction of Mr. W. E. Logan. There is great precision in his 

 observations and exactness in his statements All the observa- 

 tions bear directly on the geology of the United States, and they 

 have already solved several doubtful points as to the age of American 

 rocks." 



When the Canadian Government determined to send to the Paris 

 Exhibition a series of the economic minerals of the country. Sir 

 William Logan was charged with the arrangement of the collection, 

 the whole of which, with scarcely an exception, had been procured by 

 the personal exertions of the geological commission. In order to 

 point out the geological relations of the specimens thus collected, he 

 exhibited at the same time a map on the scale of ^^^ , on which 

 he laid down, for the first time, all the details of his geological 



* Silliman, vol. xix. N. S. p. 438. 



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