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694 regard to the site for his Victoria Bridge. His visits to the coal-fields were eminently satisfactory, for he found in every case the under-clay showing plenty of remains of Stigmaria. While on this trip he met Lyell, and had the pleasure of learning that that distinguished geologist was acquainted with his work, and deemed his results important.

The first Parliament of the united provinces of Canada in 1841 voted £1,500 for a geological survey. Logan was then in England, but his friends in Montreal, who had heard him express a desire to do this work, proposed his name to the Governor for director of the survey, and in the next year he was tendered the appointment. Then followed twenty-seven years of devoted labor in the almost untrodden field of Canadian geology. After two seasons' work Logan submitted a report of progress, the first of a series of sixteen government reports. The money for the survey was voted in small annual grants, and for short terms, and more than once was Logan obliged to talk and write almost constantly, for several months, to members of the Government, explaining and demonstrating to them the importance of carrying on the work. The first of these critical periods occurred in the winter of 1844-'45, when the first grant of £1,500 had been expended, together with over £800 of Logan's money. Finally, £2,000 a year for five years was granted, and, at the end of the time, the grant was renewed for five years more. An act in 1855 appropriated twice as much for the next five years, but this was afterward somewhat reduced. It required a large measure of courage and devotion to plunge into this work so earnestly as Logan did. "Of the topography of the Gaspé district," the first region examined, "little was known in 1843 beyond the coast-line; of the geology, practically nothing. Settlements were few, confined almost exclusively to the coast, and made up chiefly of fishermen. There were no roads through the interior, most of which was (and, indeed, still is) a wilderness, inhabited by bears and other wild beasts, or at best only penetrated, in certain seasons of the year, by a few Indians or lumbermen. The courses of most of the streams were unknown, and the precipitous mountain passes untraversed. Such was the country whose geology Logan was now to investigate." Other inconveniences were coarse food and hard beds, camping in wigwams that kept out only part of the rains, frequent bruises from working among rocks, bites of insects, and the vulgar inquisitiveness of persons who could only conceive him to be a searcher for the precious metals or a lunatic. The following words of Mr. Murray, his geological assistant in Canada, descriptive of Logan's habit while in Wales, apply also to his longer labors in Canada: "Even at that early period, when every comfort of life was easily accessible, I observed his utter indifference to self-indulgence of any kind, or even such ordinary comforts as most people would be inclined to call indispensable necessities. After an early and very simple