XXV 



afterwards assistant under Professor Benjamin Silliman, sen., in Yale 

 k College. Two years later, after working for a short time in the 

 Geological Survey of Vermont, he was selected, on Silliman's re- 

 commendation, by Mr., afterwards Sir William, Logan to be the 

 chemist and mineralogist to the then recently-organised Geological 

 Survey of Canada. In this position he remained as the colleague and 

 assistant of Sir William for more than 25 years, till his resignation 

 in 1872. His work in this capacity is well known. He was employed 

 in the earliest scientific investigations of the petroleum, the rock salt, 

 the phosphates, and the iron and copper ores of Canada, and also in 

 researches on the composition of a great number of rocks and 

 minerals, of mineral waters, and of soils ; while he devoted a large 

 amount of attention to the structure and composition — at that time so 

 little known — of the ancient crystalline rocks of the Ottawa Valley 

 and the Great Lakes, in unravelling the stratigraphical intricacies of 

 which Logan and his assistant Murray were at the same time actively 

 and most successfully occupied. He thus had an important share in 

 the great work of instituting the Laurentian and Huronian systems 

 of Geology, and in systematising our knowledge of the oldest rocks 

 of Canada and of the world. This work he afterwards followed up 

 independently, in the development of the Eorian, Montalban, 

 Taconian, and Kewenian systems, in which he included various 

 groups of ancient rocks between the Laurentian and the Cambrian; 

 and, though gome of these groups may be regarded as still in dispute, 

 there can be no question of the great scientific valne of Hunt's 

 studies of them, and of the new facts which he contributed to their 

 discussion. 



While connected with the Geological Survey, Hunt willingly aided 

 in the drudgery of literary work and administration, for many parts 

 of which his early culture and extensive range of reading and know T - 

 ledge well fitted him. 



At this time also he conceived and published, in a succession of 

 papers, those wide views on chemical and general geology which were 

 embodied in his greater works, and more especially in his ' Mineral 

 Physiology and Physiography ' (1886), in which he discussed, with 

 a power and range of knowledge rarely equalled, the original condi- 

 tion of our planet, and the genesis of its more ancient rocks, as well 

 as the processes of decomposition, recomposition, and metamorphosis 

 to which they have been subjected. This great and eminently sug- 

 gestive work deserves the careful study of all concerned in petro- 

 graphy or physical geography, who, whether or not they may agree 

 with all its conclusions, will find very much to instruct, and to stimu- 

 late and guide thought and investigation. This work alone, with the 

 earlier essays on chemical geology, would be sufficient to form the 

 basis of a great reputation, and must retain its place as a leading 



