Miscellaneous Intelligence. 247 



earnestness and success. Already in 1846 he published several 

 short chemical notes in this Journal, and in 1847 reviewed at 

 length Gerhardt's Organic Chemistry, which had greatly inter- 

 ested and instructed him, besides preparing papers on some points 

 suggested by it. The Geological Survey of Canada under Wm. 

 E. Logan, (afterward Sir William) as Director, with Alexander 

 Murray as assistant, had been in progress from the year 1842 ; 

 and in 1847 Mr. Hunt was appointed its chemist and mineralogist. 

 The Annual Reports for 1S49-50 and the following years bear 

 evidence of his activity in analyses of rocks, minerals, mineral 

 waters and materials of economical value. In the Report for 

 1850-1, he has analyses of the minerals peristerite and bytownite 

 of Thomson and proposes a new species, Loganite; in that of 

 1851-52 he describes the new species Parophite, and in that for 

 1852-53, he brings out Wilsonite as a new mineral.* The results 

 of similar work make large mineralogical and penological con- 

 tributions to the succeeding volumes. In the general Report of 

 1863, chapters 17, 18, 19 and 20, occupying over 200 pages, are 

 by him. 



Mr. Hunt took a wide interest in the results of the Canadian 

 Survey, and in 1849 presented at length to the American Asso- 

 ciation, and again in 1861 and 1868 to this Journal, the conclusion 

 of Logan that the Taconic series of rocks were of Lower Silurian 

 age; and in 1855 there was published in this Journal — anony- 

 mously, in compliance with his request — a severe review by him 

 of Professor Emmons's American Geology. He continued his 

 connection with the Survey until 1872, two years after Mr. 

 Selvvyn became Director. In the mean time, he also occupied 

 the chair of chemistry at the Laval University, Quebec, from 

 1856 to 1862, and at McGill University, Montreal, from 1862 to 

 1868. From 1872 to 1878 he was Professor of Geology in the 

 Institute of Technology, Boston. 



* An error in Appleton's American Cyclopedia of Biography with reference to 

 the introduction of the terms Laurentian and Huronian, should here be corrected 

 in justice to the distinguished head of the Canadian Geological Survey. In the 

 Annual Report for 1S5--53, Logan says on this point, on page 8 of his special 

 report, which is 150 pages in length, as follows: "The name which has been 

 given in the previous Reports to the rocks underlying the fossiliferous formations 

 in. this part of Canada is the Metamorphic Series ; but, inasmuch as this is appli- 

 cable to any series of rocks in an altered condition and might occasion confusion, 

 it has been considered expedient to apply to them for the future, the more distinc- 

 tive name of Laurentian Series." 



Then follows a list of the geological formations of Canada, in which Laurentian 

 is followed by the Potsdam, showing that it was applied to the rocks older than 

 the Potsdam, all of which he believed to lie unconformably beneath the Potsdam. 



The term Huronian first appears in print in the Sketch of Canadian Geology, of 

 1855, by Mr. Logan and Mr. Hunt, prepared for the Paris Exposition. The pre- 

 face of the work credits Mr. Logan with all the geological part of the volume, 

 and the text cites from him all the characteristics mentioned of the Huronian 

 Series. The Annual Report of the Survey for 1853-55, published in 1857, in the 

 course of the special report of Mr. Murray for the year 1854, dated June 11, 1855, 

 uses both the terms Laurentian Series and Huronian, in describing the rocks which 

 he had studied the year before and conjointly with Logan in former years. 



