THE CANADIAN GEOLOGICAL ST/EYEY. 239 



doing so I may be permitted to add a few remarks on the position 

 accorded to him by men of science both in Europe and America. 



Previous to his engagement with the Canadian Government, the 

 reputation of Mr. Logan (as we shall still call Sir William in refer- 

 ing to his past career,) stood deservedly high, although his merits 

 were then only known and appreciated by the comparatively few 

 scientific men with whom he had direct communication. At an early 

 period he made a very valuable collection of the birds and insects 

 common to Canada, included in which were many species previously 

 unknown, which he subsequently presented to the Institution at 

 Swansea, of which he was one of the founders, and a zealous promoter 

 of its interests during his residence in that locality. 



But it was in the field of geology that Mr. Logan was destined to 

 bear a conspicuous part, and it was during his residence in South 

 Wales, that he performed a work which has been declared by the 

 first scientific men in Europe to be " unrivalled in its time, and ne- 

 ver surpassed since." This great work was his Geological Map and 

 Sections of the Glamorganshire Coal-field, the minuteness and accu- 

 racy of which were such, that when the Government Survey, under 

 Sir Henry de la Beche, came to South "Wales, not one single line 

 drawn by Mr. Logan was found to be incorrect, and the whole was 

 approved and published without alteration. ]S~or was this all : — the 

 system Mr. Logan had pursued in following out the details of 

 the coal-field was so vastly superior to any hitherto adopted, that the 

 principle has been fully adopted by the British Survey. Mr. Logan's 

 map may be said to be the model one of the whole collection. It 

 ought to be borne in mind also, that at this time he was not employ- 

 ed as one of the geological staff, but simply as an amateur, and that 

 — in the same spirit as so many of his Canadian observations have 

 been carried out, — he generously presented the fruits of his labors, 

 without fee or remuneration, to the British Government. 



While engaged in the examination of the coal-formation, Mr. Logan 

 contributed many interesting and valuable papers to the Geological 

 Society of London, among which may be specially noticed one on the 

 " Stigmaria beds" or " under clays" which accompany every coal- 

 seam ; as from the observations recorded then, the long disputed theory 

 as to the origin of coal was finally set at rest, and the inferences it led 

 to universally acknowledged. Another paper, contributed prior to 

 ] lis connexion with Canadian Geology, also deserves notice here, as 

 it refers to a matter in which a portion of Canada is deeply interested. 

 It is entitled : " On the effect of the packing of the Ice in the Biver 

 St. Lawrence opposite the City of Montreal." The principles laid 



