9 
of Edinburgh, Session 1875 - 76 . 
William Edmond Logan, another Honorary Fellow of the Society, 
was bora at Montreal, Canada, in the year 1798, and died on 22d 
June 1875. 
His father was originally a landed proprietor in Stirlingshire, and 
emigrated to Canada. He sent his son from Canada, when very 
young, to Scotland, to be educated in the High School, and after- 
wards in the University of Edinburgh. 
When young Logan was in Edinburgh, geological investigations 
and speculations were exciting much interest, in consequence of 
the discussion between the Huttonians and Wernerians. Mr Logan 
then acquired a taste for geology; and having occasion to go to 
South Wales, he began to study the rocks in the coal-fields there, 
at this time, beginning to be more extensively worked. Having 
procured an Ordnance Survey map on a large scale, he was at the 
trouble to trace out and lay down upon it the outcrop of all the 
coal seams worked through extensive tracts of country. Seeing 
where the outcrops ceased to be continuous, he ascertained the 
amount and direction of the dykes and slips by which the strata 
had been dislocated. He descended into the mines, and studied 
for himself the structure of the coal, and examined particularly the 
fossils found in the coal. He was then struck bv the fact, that 
every coal seam lay upon a bed of blue-coloured clay, in which 
apparently the plants had grown, now found petrified in coal. 
In several instances he discovered that some of the fossil trees 
which had their trunks in the coal-bed had their roots still 
stretching into the underlying bed of clay. 
About this time Sir Henry de la Beche, who was directing the 
Geological Survey of England and Wales, happened to come into 
South Wales. Having heard of Mr Logan, he became acquainted 
with him; and having seen the work he had been carrying on, he 
at once put him on the staff of the survey. 
Mr Logan having permanently adopted geology as a profession, 
became a Member of the Geological Society of London. Frequently 
joining in the discussions there, he made the acquaintance of Sir 
Charles Lyell, Sir Roderick Murchison, and other leading geologists. 
Having obtained leave of absence to visit his father in Canada, 
he went there in 1841, and spent much of his time in exploring 
the great coal-fields of Nova Scotia and Pennsylvania. 
VOL. IX. 
B 
