Sir William- Edmond Logan. 85 



Eeaching Halifax on the 20th of May, Logan spent several 

 weeks in examining portions of the coal-fields of Nova Scotia 

 and New Brunswick, and it was at this time that he made his 

 seciion of the Coal Measures at the South Joggins, which, as 

 has been truly said, is "a remarkable monument of his indus- 

 try and powers of observation." It gives details of nearly the 

 whole thickness of the coal formation of Nova Scotia, or 14,570 

 feet, including 76 beds of coal and 90 distinct Stigmaria under- 

 chiys. Shortly after his visit to the Joggins, he wrote to a 

 friend as follows : "I never before saw such a magnificent sec- 

 tion as is there displayed. The rocks along the coast are laid 

 bare for thirty miles, and every stratum can be touched and 

 examined in nearly the whole distance. A considerable portion 

 has a high angle of inclination, and the geological thickness thus 

 brought to view is very great. I measured and registered every 

 bed occurring in a horizontal distance of ten miles, taking the 

 angle of dip all the way along." And again, in a letter to De 

 la Beche written in the spring of lo44, referring to the Joggins 

 section, he says : "Since my return from field-work, I have re- 

 duced all the measurements and made out a vertical column. 

 It occupies fifty-four pages of foolscap, closely written, and you 

 will be astonished at the details in it" 



Lspe early in July, the summer and autumn were 

 spent in making an examination of the coast, while Mr. Murray 

 was at work in the Upper Province, examining the country be- 

 tween Lakes Huron and Erie. The Gaspe peninsula had been 

 selected by Mr. Logan as the field for his first operations, as it 

 was thought that outlying patches of the Carboniferons might 

 be found to exist there, and the government was especially 

 anxious to ascertain whether there was any truth in the re- 



The following season, the work in Gaspe was continued, the 

 Director being this time accompanied by Mr. Murray, who, in 

 1845, again carried cm the work, while Mr. Logan was engaged 

 in explorations on the Upper Ottawa and Mattawan. Alto- 

 gether, during the three seasons, 800 miles of the Gaspe coast 

 were examined, and several sections made across the peninsula, 

 from the St Lawrence to Bay Chaleur. No coal was found, but 

 many geological facts of importance were accumulated, and a 

 large amount of topographical work accomplished in what was 

 previously almost a terra incognita. 



"Living the life of a savage, sleeping on the beach in a 

 blanket sack with my feet to the fire, seldom taking my clothes 

 off, eating salt pork and ship's biscuit occasionally tormented 

 by mosquitoes, ' — such is the record which Logan has left us of 

 his Gaspe life, the foretaste of what was to be endured for many 

 years. From early dawn till dusk he paced or paddled, and yet 



