84 Sir William Edmond Logan. 



rit, and the Hon. Mr. Killaly, but it was not reported on. A 

 similar petition was presented bj Mr. Black, from the Literary 

 and Historical Society of Quebec, which was read. The gov- 

 ernment took up the matter, and on the motion of the Hon. B. 

 Harrison, the sum of £1,500 sterling for the purpose of a sur- 

 vey was introduced into the estimates."* 



Lord Sydenham dying in 18-41, it fell to his successor. Sir 

 Charles Bagot, to appoint a Provincial Geologist. Sir Charles 

 referred the matter to Lord Stanley, Secretary of State for the 

 Colonies, and His Lordship, on recommendation of Murchison, 

 De la Beche, Sedgwick, and Buckland, offered the position to 

 Mr, Logan in the spring of 1842. 



Logan was now thoroughly in love with geology, and seeing 

 in Canada the grandest of fields for original research, at once 

 accepted. Still he well understood the diffi3iilties which lay 

 before him, and shortly afterwards addressed the following 

 words to De la Beche : *' You are aware that I have been ap- 



Sointed by the Provincial Government of Canada to make a 

 eological Survey of that Colony. The extent and nature of 

 the territory will render the task a most laborious one ; but I 

 am fully prepared to spare no exertion of which I am capable 

 to render the work, when it is completed, satisfactory to those 

 who have instituted the examination and creditable to rajself 

 * * No one knows better than yourself how difficult it 



would be for one person to work with effect in all the branches 

 of so extensive a subject. To carry out the field-work with 

 vigor, to reduce all the sections with the requisite degree of 

 accuracy, and map the geographical distribution of the rocks, to 

 collect minerals and fossils, and to analyze the one, and by 

 laborious and extensive comparisons, to determine the geologi- 

 cal age of the other, is quite impossible without a proper divis- 

 ion of labor. * * In Canada, all the expensive means 

 of palseontological comparison have yet to be brought together. 

 There is no arranged collection of fossils, and no such thing as 

 a geological library to refer to." 



Arriving in Canada late in August, 1842, Logan devoted 

 several months to making a preliminary examination of the 

 country, and to collecting information with regard to the topo- 

 graphical work which had been accomplished. This was done 

 entirely at his own expense. In December, he returned to 

 England to fulfill engagements there, but came out again in the 

 following spring. During his visit to the old country, he was 

 so fortunate as to secure the services of Mr. Alexander Murray, 

 a gentleman who afterwards proved himself an invaluable assist- 

 ant and friend, and who has contributed largely to our knowl- 

 edge of the geology of Canada, and, more recently, to that of 



