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OTTAWA NATIONAL MUSEUMS OF CANADA

SYLLOGEUS is a publication of the National Museum of Natural Sciences,
National Museums of Canada, designed to permit the rapid dissemination
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Syllogeus series No. 22 Série Syllogeus N° 22
(c) National Museums of Canada 1979 (c) Musées nationaux du Canada 1979

Printed in Canada Imprimé au Canada

ISSN 0704-576X

John Warkentin

Department of Geography
York University, Downsview,

Ontario M3J 1P3

Syllogeus No. 22
National Museums of Canada Les Musées nationaux du Canada

National Museum of Natural Sciences Musée national des Sciences naturelles

Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2011 with funding from
California Academy of Sciences Library

http://www.archive.org/details/syllogeus22nati

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The first page of Back's lecture notebook

INTRODUCTION

In the late fall and early winter months of 1825-26 a series of
geology lectures was delivered in a log fort on the western shore of
Great Bear Lake, about 450 kilometres south of the Arctic Ocean.

This was 17 years before the establishment of the Geological Survey
of Canada, five years before the founding of the Natural History
Society of Halifax, and four before that of the Literary and
Historical Society of Québec. Almost certainly this was the first
course on geology given in today's western Canada, and perhaps in
all British North America. It is true that observations on the
geology of different parts of British North America were being made
in the early 19th century, such as David Thompson's (Warkentin, 1967)
geological summation in about 1800 of the western interior of Canada,
W.E. Cormack's (1928) mineralogical descriptions recorded on his
walk across Newfoundland in 1823, Captain Bayfield's (1829) remarks
on the Lake Superior area in the 1820's, Dr. J.J. Bigsby's (1822,
1824, 1825a, 1825b, 1828, 1829a, 1829b) reports on the geology of
the St. Lawrence-Great Lakes in that same decade, and W.H. Keating's
(1959) account of the rocks observed on Stephen H. Long's expedition
to Minnesota and Lake Winnipeg in 1823. But the lectures at Great
Bear Lake differed from such descriptive geological field observations;
they were an attempt to instruct a small group of men in selected
fundamentals of geology, and so comprise what may have been the first
"extension course" in science in what is now Canada. Dr. John
Richardson, surgeon and naturalist on the two Franklin land

expeditions to the Arctic of 1819-22 and 1825-27, gave the lectures.

The first Franklin expedition had been a disaster, with many men
lost and the mapping of the Arctic coast not completed. On the
second Franklin expedition a base called Fort Franklin was established
in 1825 on Great Bear Lake, about 112 kilometres east of the Mackenzie
river (Fig. 1). The fort was small. The main structure 7.3 x 12.2
metres, comprised a hall and quarters for the officers. Other
buildings sheltering men and stores were arranged so that with the
hall they enclosed a court. Thirty persons wintered here in 1825-

26, four naval officers from Great Britain, Captain John Franklin,

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location map showing the routes of the 1819-22 and 1825-27

Figure 1

(Franklin) expeditions

Dr. John Richardson, Lieutenant George Back, and Admiralty Mate Mr.
E.N. Kendall, a Hudson's Bay Company Chief Trader named Peter Warren
Dease, and 25 men. The explorers intended to reach the Arctic

coast early in the exploring season of 1826. For officers and men
this meant a winter of marking time, isolated in a post in the High

Arctic.

Even though there was work for the men, such as bringing in food
and fuel, and the officers made scientific observations, special
efforts still had to be made to maintain morale. The situation was
not unlike that experienced by sea-borne Arctic explorers when their
ships were frozen in ice over winter. Although the Franklin party
wintered on land, they were many days' travel from the nearest Hudson's
Bay Company post, and furthermore did not possess the facilities for

entertainment which ships could carry.

As the evenings lengthened and the grip of winter restricted
activities the officers endeavoured to keep everyone usefully occupied.
On his Arctic expedition of 1819-20 Captain William E. Parry (1821)
had demonstrated the value of printing a newspaper, putting on
amateur theatricals, and organizing other entertainment to keep up
the spirits of his men during the winter. Franklin attempted a
Similar approach. To keep the men employed over some of the long
evenings and at the same time provide them with new skills a school
was established, meeting every other evening in the week from 7 to
9 o'clock. Each of the officers took a certain number of pupils and
taught reading, writing and arithmetic. The men responded well and
Franklin (1828b, p. 54-5) stated that a number did learn to read and

write.

The officers also attempted to improve themselves, especially
in science. Officers who volunteered for exploring expeditions in
the 19th century were normally trained in navigation, surveying and
topographical drawing, and were often genuinely interested in the
scientific work of the day, especially natural history. Franklin,
for example, was a Fellow of the Royal Society, had been made a

member of the Wernerian Society of Edinburgh after the 1819-22

Expedition and knew Roderick Murchison, William Hooker, Robert Jameson,
and other leading scientists. He corresponded with them and assisted
them in securing collections of rocks and plants from foreign lands.
Amongst the educated classes of Britain investigation into many
aspects of science, especially the study of plants, animals, minerals
and rocks in the field, was fairly widespread. Useful scientific
contributions were made by men and women who devoted time and money

to pursue such activities. Many naval officers were part of the

same cultural tradition. Conversant with the science of the time,
they hoped to contribute to it when on special assignments such as

exploring the northern part of North America.

Consequently it comes as no surprise that the officers were
interested in attending a series of lectures on geology when this
was proposed by Dr. Richardson (Back, 1825). These lectures reinforced
some earlier instruction they had received. Before the expedition
left Britain Dr. W.H. Fitton, President of the Geological Society of
London, instructed Richardson and the other officers in geology to
prepare them for their explorations, much as astronauts are taught
some geology nowadays to enable them to explore the surface of the
moon more intelligibly. They had studied the collections of rocks in
the museum of the Geological Society, and Dr. Fitton provided a portable
collection for further study which was carried to Great Bear Lake. The
explorers also took a small library with them which included (Franklin,
1825, 1828a) the following books: Robert Jameson's (1821), Mineralogy;
William Phillips' (1823), Mineralogy; Alexander Humboldt's (1823),
Superposttton of Rocks; Conybeare and Phillips' (1822), Geology of
England and Wales; DeCandolle's (1821), Philosophy of Plants; and
Wahlenberg's (1820), Flora Upsaltensis. The full titles and the

editions likely used are given in the references.

It was thought (Back, 1825, Oct. 1; Franklin, 1823/27, Oct. 6,
1825) that the lectures by Richardson would help the officers in their
study of the rock collections assembled by Dr. Fitton and in their
reading of geology. Franklin (1825, Nov. 6, 1825) expressed this well

in a letter to Roderick Murchison:

We have brought up the collection he (Dr. Fitton) had the
goodness to give us for reference--and our excellent friend
Dr. Richardson's affords all the information he has, or
which he can gather from the books we have brought respecting
them--so that through him we endeavour to keep up the
information which Dr. Fitton first imparted--We have got
Conybeare & Phillips--Phillips & Jameson on Mineralogy and
Humboldt on the Superposition of Rocks--but to the
inexperienced--one lecture from a person conversant with the
Science is more profitable than many hours reading on
Subjects naturally difficult to be comprehended--.
The officers probably had the immediate object in mind of learning how
to identify rocks and minerals while exploring, but the broad ranging
nature of Richardson's discourses makes it apparent that the lectures
were an introduction to the whole field of geology, especially to the

classes and formations of rocks as they were known at that time.

We would have no further evidence of Richardson's lectures than
the brief reference to them by Franklin (1828b, p. 56) in the
published narrative of the expedition, and the comments by Franklin
(1825) and Back (1825) in their letters and journals, if Back had not
kept a complete set of notes on the lectures which happily have been
preserved, and are now deposited in the archives of the Scott Polar

Research Institute, Cambridge, England.

Dr. John Richardson, a native of Dumfries, Scotland had his 38th
birthday during the time he was giving these lectures. He was
apprenticed as a surgeon in Dumfries and took medical classes at the
University of Edinburgh. In 1807 he was appointed an assistant
surgeon in the Royal Navy. Richardson had a profound interest in
natural history and eventually established a fine reputation as a
Marine zoologist. In 1819 he was appointed to Franklin's first
expedition as surgeon and naturalist, and while living in Edinburgh
for a short time before the expedition sailed for British North
America, studied mineralogy and attended lectures by Robert Jameson,
Professor of Natural History at the University of Edinburgh. As was
common in this period, a great deal of Richardson's knowledge must
have been acquired from his own background reading. On the second
Franklin expedition he once more served as surgeon and naturalist,

and also was in effect Franklin's second in command. From 1828-38

Richardson was the chief medical officer at the Melville Naval
Hospital at Chatham, England, and from 1838-55 the senior physician

to the Royal Naval Hospital at Haslar, England. In 1848-49 he
journeyed to the Arctic once more to assist in the search for
Franklin, lost on his third Arctic exploring expedition.

Richardson never lost his interest in natural history and extablished
a fine reputation as an ichthyologist and was recognized as an
authority on the physical geography of northern British North America.
Knighted in 1846, he retired from the navy in 1855, and died ten years
later. Johnson (1976) has prepared a full biography of Richardson as

explorer, naval medical administrator and natural historian.

George Back was born in 1796. He joined the Royal Navy in 1808,
and first journeyed to the Arctic in 1818 on a ship commanded by
John Franklin. He was engaged as midshipman on Franklin's 1819-22
exploring expedition, and was a member, of course, of Franklin's
1825-27 expedition. He remained associated with the Navy until the
end of his life, moving in and out of retirement a number of times,
and often advising the Admiralty on Arctic matters. In 1833-35 he
led an expedition to the Arctic in search of Captain John Ross, and
in 1836-37 he was the leader of an exploring voyage to the eastern
Arctic. Back was knighted in 1839, promoted to Rear Admiral (Reserve)
in 1857, Admiral in 1876, and died in 1878. Holland (1972) has

written a short incisive account of his career.

DESCRIPTION OF THE NOTEBOOK

Lieutenant Back kept his notes carefully, as if he were attending
a university course of lectures, in a separate notebook 26.7 x 16.5 cm.
There are 27 pages of notes, written in ink, followed by 5 pages of
coloured geological cross sections. Richardson delivered a total of
11 lectures; each is numbered and dated in the notebook. The first
was given October 7, 1825, and the last January 13, 1826. Back's
handwriting is usually legible, although sometimes it deteriorates
as if Richardson was lecturing fast and Back was forced to write too

quickly making it impossible to decipher a few words. That these are

notes taken down from lectures is further indicated by the fact that
Back wrote in point form, used dashes to separate sub-topics,
abbreviated words, used the symbol for ditto, and left blank spaces
in some listings when he could apparently not keep up with
Richardson. The staccato nature of some sections, where Back listed
main points only as Richardson proceeded, further substantiates this
view. Misspellings are numerous, as one might expect, and there

are examples of phonetic spelling, likely based on the way Richardson
pronounced certain unfamiliar words. The most obvious example is
"oophytile" for Euphotide, later corrected in Back's handwriting very

lightly in pencil.

There are no maps in the notebook, and we have no way of telling
whether Richardson referred to maps while describing geological
formations. Back is well known for his topographic sketches, and in
the text there are a few drawings of strata and other features but
these are no better than the illustrative material inserted by any
careful student in his lecture notes. Indeed, the lack of diagrams
is rather disappointing, and is possibly related to inadequate means
for illustrating the lectures. However, the coloured geological cross
sections at the end of the lectures (Fig. 3 is an example) illustrate
effectively the sequence of rocks described by Richardson. No
direct references are made in the notes to these sections, so they

may have been copied by Back from other sources.

METHODOLOGICAL BACKGROUND

Richardson's own notes are not available for analyzing his
geological ideas. His ideas can only be approached indirectly through
what was recorded by Back. In all likelihood Richardson's exposition
was much more complete than is apparent from Back's notes, and the
reservation must be made that these notes are not necessarily a full
or even an entirely true reflection of Richardson's thoughts on
geology. There is no fully satisfactory way of verifying this, although
it is possible to compare the notes made by Back with Richardson's own

geological descriptions included in the official reports of the two

Franklin expeditions. This is done at the end of this introduction.
For the present it is assumed that Back's notes constitute a true
record of Richardson's geological ideas at the time the lectures were

given.

Richardson delivered his lectures on geology during a critical
period in the development of the subject. In the years 1790-1810
William Smith (1815, 1817) demonstrated the utility of fossils in
identifying and tracing sedimentary strata and established a
chronological sequence of sedimentary rocks for the Secondary (Mesozoic)
rocks of eastern England. However, Richardson lectured to his fellow
officers just before Charles Lyell started to write his Principles of
Geology (1830, 1831, 1833) which brought a great measure of order and
consistency in approach to the study of geology, at least in Great
Britain. In the 1820s there was little understanding of how the earth
had been formed, and still some lingering argument over the fundamental
question of how rocks such as basalt, granite, gneiss and syenite had
originated. This was one of the fierce controversies in the history
of geology and since Richardson transferred some hints of this great

debate to the remote Arctic it merits consideration.

One school of thought held that a considerable proportion of the
earth's rocks, including the oldest, had been deposited as precipitates
in a great universal fluid or ocean which once covered the entire
globe. Supporters of this aqueous theory of the origin of the earth's
crust were called Neptunists. A famous German mineralogist, A.G.
Werner, 1749-1847, was the main proponent of this view, and it became
identified with his name. Werner (1809) classified the succession of
rocks in the earth's crust into what he thought were four universal
categories, the Primitive, Transition, Floetz (Secondary) and Alluvial
classes. The Primitive Class refers to the oldest and highest rocks
in the world, formed as chemical pregipitates when the global ocean
was deepest. Organic remains are absent and mechanical rocks rare.
When Werner first worked out his system he thought (Adams, 1954, p.
218-9) that sedimentary beds directly overlay the Primitive. They

consisted of mechanical deposits derived from already existing Primitive

10

rocks together with organic remains and associated precipitates. These
beds had been deposited in horizontal layers at lower elevations than
the Primitive as the universal fluid declined in volume and fell in
level, and comprised the Secondary Class, or Floetz, from the German
word for flat. Later, Werner introduced (Adams, 1954, p. 218-9)
another major category of rocks between the Primitive and the Secondary.
These rocks were similar to the Primitive but not quite as crystalline
and contained a few organic remains. It was believed that by the time
these rocks were formed the processes of precipitation, erosion and
sedimentation working concurrently were producing both crystalline

and sedimentary rocks. Werner called (Adams, 1954, p. 219) this the
Transition class. The Alluvial deposits were much younger than the
Transition and Secondary. Formed from previously existing rocks, they
were only loosely consolidated and were still being laid down. Robert
Jameson, 1774-1854, who had studied under Werner, was the German

scholar's leading and most active supporter in Great Britain.

The opposing school of thought held that the oldest rocks were
not precipitates in a universal ocean but were of igneous origin,
formed by the cooling of hot molten material originating in the
interior of the earth. Hence supporters of this concept, calling upon

subterranean heat, were called Vulcanists.

Basalt and granite were key pieces of evidence in the debate on
the origin of rocks, with both Neptunists and Vulcanists claiming
them for their own. Two Scots, Sir James Hall, 1761-1839, an amateur
chemist, and James Hutton, 1726-97, an amateur geologist, had fairly
well proven by the turn of the 18th century that rocks such as basalt
and granite were of igneous origin, Hall through laboratory experiments

and Hutton through field studies (Geikie, 1962, p. 305-11, 317-26).

Hutton (1795) worked out a comprehensive system explaining amongst
other things the origin of rocks and the surface features of the earth.
He postulated the igneous nature of many rocks, and this became known
as the Huttonian theory. Hutton also argued that landforms were
produced by normal processes of erosion working uniformly over long

periods of time. Since no sudden catastrophies were called upon in

this explanation of the origin of landforms it came to be known as

the doctrine of uniformitarianism.

By the 1820s the Huttonians had carried the field against the
Wernerians on the issue of the igneous vs. chemical origin of those
rocks which we regard today as igneous, but there were lingering
pockets of resistance. Robert Jameson was a stubborn man and held
his ground as a staunch Wernerian or Neptunist against the Huttonians
or Vulcanists for many years. And he influenced Dr. John Richardson
who had attended his lectures just before embarking for North America
on Franklin's first expedition. The men became good friends, and
later Jameson identified and described rock specimens collected by
the Expedition. In 1808 in his compedium on mineralogy Jameson (1808)
strongly advocated the Wernerian doctrine on the origin of rocks and
vigorously challenged the Huttonian position. In 1821 he said little
about the controversy (Jameson, 1821), yet as late as 1834 he still
maintained that granite could be formed both as a precipitate from
a liquid, probably water, and also from a state of igneous fusion

(Jameson, 1834, p. 220).

Richardson made considerable use of Jameson's ideas in his
lectures, but he was influenced by other authorities as well. After
all, in the mid-1820s options were still open on which geological
interpretations and which classifications of rocks to use because
Lyell's great consolidating work, which very well might have
channelled Richardson's presentation, had not yet appeared. In his
lectures Richardson named some authorities even if he did not provide
exact references, and this is helpful in determining where he got his
ideas. Further, nearly all of his sources can be established by
comparing Back's notes with the contents of the books the Expedition
brought to the Arctic. The quotations from these sources are never
exact. They scarcely could be, filtered as they were through Back's
notes. But there are sufficient similarities in organizations, and
in the use of terms and specific phrases, between the notes and
particular early mineralogical and geological treatises to leave little

doubt where Richardson got his information.

11

12

The following excerpts indicate the sorts of relationships which
can be established between points made in the lectures and the sources

on which they appear to be based:

(a) Richardson, Lecture 6: "Greywacke consists of
fragments of Quartz Felspar - Lydian Stone and Clay
Slate, connected by Basis of Clay Slate"

Jameson (1821, p. 377): (Greywacke) "It is
composed of angular or other shaped portions of quartz,
felspar Lydian-stone and clay-slate, connected together
by means of a basis or ground of the nature of clay-
Saree se.

(b) Richardson Lecture 10: (London Clay) "It
chokes the Plough and rolls before it unlike other
Clay. —The Beach or bank when dried is cracked
resembling the Giant's Causeway."

Conybeare and Phillips (1822, p. 33): (London
Clay) "This clay chokes the plough and rolls before it
in a broken and muddy state; after rain it is not
slippery, but adheres to the shoes; after drought it
presents cracks nearly a yard in depth and several
inches in breadth. On the Nore, south of Walton it
forms a sort of pavement in many places, and divides
by desiccation into small columns resembling, ona
small scale, the Giant's causeway."

(c) Richardson, Lecture 6: (Transition Greywacke)
"According to Humboldt it may be determined in Schistos-
Porphyry-Sienite-Granular and compact Limestone—4th
Euphitide and 5th Aggregated Rocks.—"

Humboldt (1823, p. 130-31) "If we examine the
transition formations according to their structure and
their oryctognostic composition, we distinguish five
very strongly marked associations; the schistose rocks;
the porphyritic rocks (feldspathic or syenitic) ;
granular and compact limestone, with anhydrous gypsum
and rock-salt; euphotides and aggregated rocks (grauwacke,
and calcareous breccias) ."

Turning now to the lectures as a whole it is evident that Richardson
based much of his material on Jameson (1821) and Conybeare and Phillips
(1822). Jameson's Mineralogy (1821) basically is a description of
rocks and minerals organized according to the Wernerian classification
of rocks by age into the Primitive, Transition, Secondary and Alluvial

groups (see Figure 2 for modern equivalent formations). The great

innovative approach of William Smith (1815, 1817) to investigating

the Secondary (Mesozoic) rocks of England, firmly based on the fossil
record, did not illuminate Jameson's book, although Jameson did
describe in his mineralogical way an essentially correct succession

of Secondary strata in England. However, the principles established
by Smith (1817) were followed by Conybeare and Phillips (1822) in
describing the sedimentary formations of England and Wales. Thus the
two books used by Richardson complement one another to some extent.
Jameson (1821, p. 345-82) considered the Primitive and Transition
rocks in considerable detail, and although he discussed (ibid, p.
382-424) the Secondary and Alluvial at even greater length he did

not have nearly the clarity of interpretation which Conybeare and
Phillips (1822, p. 3-470) provided on those formations. On the other
hand, the latter did not consider formations earlier than the Secondary,
nor volcanic rocks, intending to leave that to a second volume which
was never published. It becomes apparent halfway through Richardson's
lectures on the Secondary that he switched from Jameson to Conybeare
and Phillips as his main source, although he still drew on Jameson

for some facts and seemed to base his discussion of volcanic rocks

largely on the Scottish mineralogist.

Other books were used. Humboldt's (1823) Superposition of Rocks,
can be detected as a source on at least six occasions, and it is likely
that Phillips' (1823) Mineralogy was also employed. It has not been
possible to identify sources for all the material in Richardson's
lectures. This is to be expected because Richardson likely would have
drawn on other reading, discussions with geologists such as Fitton,

and observations of his own on British North American rocks.

CONTENTS OF THE LECTURES

Richardson's lectures are organized as indicated in the list of
topics below. The first three lectures concern general introductory
geological matters; the other eight lectures describe a chronological
sequence of rocks and geological formations, largely using British

examples.

L3

14

Topics Lecture No.

What is Geology? 1
Important Rock Forming Minerals if
Composition of Rocks 2
Texture and Structure of Rocks 2
Classification of Rocks Into Formations or Classes 2
Comments on Erosion 3
Distribution of Fossils 3
Theories of Geological Change 3
Description of the Geological Classes 3
Primitive 35.455
Transition 6
Secondary 7,8,9,10
Tertiary 10
Alluvial 10
Volcanic AE

Lecture 1. Richardson takes us directly into the world of early
19th century European geological thought. His belief that geology
leads to the recognition of the regularity of nature's stupendous
works and to higher respect for the divine being is characteristic
of the geological writings of the time. So was the quick switch to
the practical applications of the subject and possible wider
relationships. Associating particular rocks with building stones,
mining activities, fertility of the land, shape of mountains, scenery,
and so on, was characteristic of both Jameson (1821) and of Conybeare
and Phillips (1822). Richardson's suggestion that a geologist should
have a knowledge of mineralogy and botany reflected the relatively
recent recognition by geologists that botanical knowledge was valuable
in classifying strata. The importance of zoology should rightfully
have been mentioned as well. The discussion of minerals, composition
of rocks, and rock texture and structure was a very mixed up version
of Jameson's (1821) treatment, with some additional material from

Conybeare and Phillips( 1822).

Lecture 2. In discussing the composition of rocks Richardson
used the term "Mountain Rock" which Jameson (1821, p. 337) defined

as

those mineral masses of which the greater portion of the
crust of the Earth is composed. Minerals, or mineral
aggregates, to have the true characters of mountain rocks,
must occur not only in great masses, but frequently, and
present in their structure and composition such
characters as shall serve to distinguish them, and make
them known in whatever situation they may be found.

Richardson followed Jameson (1821, p. 337-45) throughout this
section, but not very clearly. Jameson's main points were: "Simple
Mountain Rocks" are formed of one mineral, "Compound Mountain Rocks"
are aggregations of various minerals. "Indeterminately aggregated"
rocks are rocks in which there is no dominant matrix, so they are
confusedly joined together as in some marbles, and "Determinately
aggregated" are rocks where one mineral is dominant and clearly
encloses another mineral or a number of other minerals. The
contemporary term for matrix was "Basis" or "Ground" and was often
used by Richardson. "Determinately aggregated" rocks were subdivided
further by Jameson, and his introductory passage (Jameson, 1821, p.
338) on these rocks is reproduced below. Richardson used it as a

source for this section.

The determinately aggregated structure presents a number
of subordinate differences. It is either simple or double
aggregated. The Simple Aggregated contains two subordinate
kinds. In the first, the minerals are connected together
in such a manner that one serves as a basis for the other,
which is included in it; and it also contains two subordinate
kinds. These are denominated the porphyritic and amygdalotdal.
In the second, all of the parts are immediately connected, or
joined together; and here we have also two subordinate kinds,
the granular and slaty.

The Double Aggregated includes five subordinate kinds:
These are, 1. Granular slaty. 2. Slaty granular. 3.
Granular porphyritic. 4. Slaty porphyritic; and 5.
Porphyritie and amygdaloidal. The first four kinds of
double aggregated structure comprehend one structure in
another, so that, as the denominations intimate, a smaller
structure is contained in a greater. In the fifth or last

16

kind, one does not include the other; but, as the
denomination expresses it, they are placed near or
beside each other.

In his comments on structure Richardson introduced only the
simplest terms and concepts, such as inclination of strata. And he
was not much more advanced in his remarks on surface features.

Granite boulders at Great Bear Lake appear to be attributed to "Cap
and Ball" erosion. More likely, of course, the boulders were erratics.
This is the first recorded reference to a Canadianexample in these

lectures.

In the short section on classifying rocks into formations or
classes, Richardson introduced what he will cover in the remaining
lectures. Richardson was content to list the classification scheme
he would use, name some of the formations, and make a few remarks on
the nature of the rocks to be found in each. Figure 2 shows the
classification used by Richardson and tabulates the major rocks
described in the lectures to follow. This division of rocks originated
with Werner (1809), as indicated above, and was subsequently adopted
by Jameson (1804, 1805, 1808, 1821) and Humboldt (1823). Richardson
demonstrated that he would get away from the model of Werner and
Jameson when he did separate a young series of sedimentary rocks,
the Tertiary, from the Secondary, basing this on Conybeare and Phillips
(1822, p. 3-57), although Conybeare and Phillips did not use the term

Tertiary.

In the brief preliminary description of the classification scheme
he adopted Richardson stated that no fossils are found in the Primitive
but are present in the Transition, and that recent shells exist in the
Tertiary and appear in mineralized form in the Secondary. These ideas
were not discussed as criteria for classifying rocks as they should
have been. Nor did Richardson consider what is meant by a "formation",
how beds can be grouped into formations, how fossils may be used to
identify strata, and how stratigraphic sequences can be recognized.

The phrase "Superposition of formations" was used, but not defined.

In subsequent lectures there are only occasional fleeting allusions

Figure 2. Rocks, Formations and Geologic Time - Units Described by Richardson and Comparable
Modern Geologic Time - Units.

Alluvial est Recent
Diluvial ov Pleistocene
Upper Fresh Water

Upper Marine

Gypsum Tertiory

Lower Fresh Water

London Clay

Plastic Clay

Chalk
Chalk Marl
Green Sand
Weald Clay
Ircn Sand

CENOZOIC

Cretaceous

Purbeck Beds
Portland Oolite
Kimmeridge Clay
Coral Rag
Oxford Clay

UPPER

MIDOLE

Combrash
Forest Marble
Stonesfield Slate
Bradford Clay
Great Oolite
Fullers Earth
Sandy Oolite
Green Sandy Mari
Lias

MESOZOIC

UPPER BEDS

OOLITIC LIMESTONES

LOWER DIVISION

LOWER
BEDS

M —Calcstone (Muschelkalk)
New Red Sandstone

Magnesian Limestone(Zechstein)

Coal Measures
Mountain Limestone

Old Red Sandstone

Triassic

Carboniferous

Devonian

Silurian

(Not separated out as yet.
Many of the rocks below
are of this age.)

Transition Euphotide
Basalt

Gnuiss and Mica Slate
Transition Limestone
Clay Slate

Glance Coal

Alum Slate

Pudding Stone
Greywacke

Quartz Rock
Euphotide
Serpentine
Greon Stone
Trap
Porphyry
Sienite
Primitive Limestone
Clay Slate
Mica Slate
Gneiss
Granite

MLERESGST S08 1

reve

EW

18

to some of these matters. Only in Lecture 10 did Richardson make a
reference to the fact that particular genera are characteristic of
particular beds, and even there it was only a remark in passing.
Fossils were not central to Richardson's analysis and were not used
as diagnostic keys for identifying and correlating strata. In these
lectures they were merely another descriptive characteristic along
with minerals. In this way Richardson reflected the dead hand of
Werner and Jameson and did not follow the lead of the great geologist
William Smith. Smith is not even mentioned by name. In fact,
Richardson did not explicitly make it clear that crystalline rocks

do not necessarily occur in the strict chronological order in which
they appear in the lectures. This can, of course, be inferred because
granite, for instance, was mentioned in both the Primitive and the

Transition classes.

Richardson used the terms Diluvial and Alluvial but did not
define them. They are now called Pleistocene and Recent respectively.
Conybeare and Phillips (1822, p. xxviii) drew a clear distinction

between Diluvial and Alluvial as they were used at that time:

To this general covering of water-worn debris derived
from all the strata, the name of Diluvtwn has been given
from the consideration of that great and universal
catastrophe to which it seems most properly assignable.

By this name it is intended to distinguish it from

the partial debris occasioned by causes still in operation;
such as the slight wear produced by the present rivers, the
more violent action of torrents, &c. &c.; to the latter the
name AlZuwviwn has lately been appropriated; but many authors
confound the two classes of phenomena together, describing
them generally as alluvial.

Lecture 3. While discussing diluvium Richardson commented on
detached rocks found on hills. Today these are considered to be glacial
boulders. Richardson related these detached rocks to the eroding action
of currents during the deluge, and noted the different views held by
William Buckland (1823), Professor of Geology at Oxford, and Conybeare
and Phillips (1822, p. xxix-xxx) on how the erosion was accomplished.
There are no comments on processes of erosion, and none on the doctrine
of uniformitarianism which was a pressing issue in geological thought

at this time. Indeed, Richardson gave little attention to geo morphology

in these lectures.

A problem which perplexed geologists was how to explain fossil
remains of tropical plants and animals found in latitudes where present
temperatures were obviously much too cold for those species.
Richardson's explanation, that the required increase in temperature
had been brought about by the heat of active volcanoes, was also

suggested by Conybeare and Phillips (1822, p. xix).

Richardson did not consider the causes and origins of major
physical changes in the earth, except to mention James Hutton's theory
of subterranean fire. Hutton (in Playfair, 1956, p. 55) suggested
that the energy of the earth's internal heat caused strata to be
raised "up to the heights at which they are now placed". The forces
of erosion then carried material back to the ocean, comprising what
in effect was a vast ever-on-going cycle of erosion and regeneration.
Back's notes are obscure here. Richardson appears to have cast some
doubt upon the theory of subterranean fire, but his reasoning,
involving the occurrence of northeast trending strata in the world
and the implication that this required a process which acted
simultaneously everywhere over the earth, appears not to have been
recorded clearly. It seems fair to infer from these scattered
statements that, whether or not Richardson adopted Hutton's views on
the continuing regeneration of the earth, he did not believe in

catastrophism on a world scale, apart from the deluge.

The remarks on subterranean heat served to introduce, rather
abruptly towards the end of this lecture, the more detailed discussion
of the various classes of rocks, beginning with the Primitive. Figure
2 indicates the order in which Richardson described the classes and
major rock formations. He began with granite. Immediately there was
a hint of the controversies over the origin of granite which prevailed
at that time. Richardson laconically stated that Werner considered
granite to be the oldest rock, that Hutton thought that it was the
newest, and that Humboldt believed that granite containing the most
quartz was the oldest. Having said this, Richardson presumably just

kept on lecturing without stating his own preferences, which is typical

UY)

of the way he handled controversial scientific matters in most of the
lectures. The various classes of rocks described by Richardson are

considered below.

Lectures 4-5. Richardson followed Jameson (1821) fairly closely
in his discussion of the Primitive rocks, adding occasional
additional facts from Humboldt (1823). The rocks, granite, gneiss,
mica slate and so on, were arranged, quite mistakenly, in what was
thought to represent a chronological record of the geological history
of the crust. Hutton (in Playfair, 1956, p. 12-15, 168-71) had already
argued that the rocks usually described in the Primitive had no

regular position in a sequential succession of formations.

Richardson indicated that there might be gradations from one kind
of Primitive rock to another depending upon mineralogical composition,
and that certain rocks held intermediary positions in such a sequence.
Further, he suggested that there was a linkage between Primitive clay
slate (argillaceous schist) and Transition slate, but noted some
differences. Nowhere did he directly state that there were any
difficulties in trying to find a proper place for igneous rock in

the Wernerian time scale.

Primitive limestone was crystalline limestone, and included marble
used for statuary purposes. "Oophytile" was likely what Back made out

of Richardson's pronunciation of euphotide, an early term for gabbro.

Most of the descriptive examples were of British rocks, but a
few North American illustrations were included. Richardson stated
that gneiss was the predominate rock in North America, occurring on
the Hill (Hayes) and English (Churchill) rivers, and on the Barren
Grounds. These areas had been visited by Richardson, Franklin, and
Back on Franklin's first expedition. In describing the gneiss of
North America Richardson provided the only remotely-light descriptive
touch recorded anywhere in the lectures, "naked rounded Rocks peeping

through the Trees".

Some of the problems inherent in the Wernerian classification

and the Wernerian way of looking at geology are revealed in these

lectures. The rocks classified as Primitive were considered to be
the oldest in the world, and, as it happens, the North American gneiss
mentioned by Richardson is a worthy candidate for this honour, yet,
most of the intrusive igneous and metamorphic rocks which Richardson
described under the Primitive could have been formed at almost any
time in geological history. James Hutton (in Playfair, 1956, p.
12-15, 168-71) had already demonstrated this, yet strangely
Richardson did not examine this question. He could have alluded to
this quite appropriately because he did state that Hutton and Werner
disagreed on the age of granite. Conybeare and Phillips (1822, p.
xvii) specifically used the term igneous in referring to trap, a
general term for dark fine-grained rock, including basalt, but
admitted that there still was some conjecture on its origin.
Richardson did not enlighten his own discussion with similar

qualifications.

Lecture 6. Jameson (1821, p. 376) treated the Transition as a
separate class but admitted that some mineralogists had assigned
these rocks to the Primitive or Secondary, and that many of the
rocks might in fact be considered part of the Primitive series.
Richardson followed Jameson in still considering them a separate class
and stated that the Transition was distinguished from other classes
by the rocks "being conglomerate". Back's notes contain flurries of
unrelated statements so that parts of this lecture lack clarity.
After starting a description of greywacke (an inclusive term for dark
cemented argillaceous sedimentary rocks considered to be the base of
the Transition) Richardson made some general comments, based on
Humboldt (1823, p. 130-1, 138-9) on what associations of rocks could
be found in the Transition, and then he referred to greywacke again.
Richardson seems to have based his comments on the following passage

in Humboldt (1823, p. 138-9), which helps to clarify Back's notes:

I consider as terms of the series of transition rocks six
groups, which appear to me to be well characterized by the
predominating rocks, by their position, and by the extent
of their masses. These groups or great formations are, I.
Steatitic, granular limestone, transition mica-slate and
grauwacke with primitive fragments. II. Porphyry (not

Za

22

metalliferous) anterior to orthoceratite limestone,

to transition clay-slate, and mica-slate. III. Clay-
slate containing grauwacke, limestone, porphyry, and
greenstone. IV. Porphyry and syenite (metalliferous)
posterior to transition clay-slate anterior to

limestones containing organic remains. V. Porphyry,
syenite and zircon-granites (not metalliferous)

posterior to clay-slate and limestone with orthoceratites.
VI. Transition euphotide with jasper and serpentine.

Richardson stated that "Greywacke and Clay Slate are in a greater
proportion throughout the World than the Primitive Rocks", but a
thorough search in Richardson's usual sources has not uncovered the
authority for this statement. Lydian stone, often mentioned by
Richardson, is a quartz or flint of a greyish-black colour.

According to Richardson organic remains are not numerous in the
Transition limestone, but at least two fossils are named. Near the
end of this lecture, in connection with a comment that the Red
Sandstone of the Secondary class immediately succeeds the Transition,
Richardson stated that all granular rocks pass into each other, but

he did not use that concept to make his discussion more explanatory.

Richardson was caught in an impossible bind in this lecture.
The rocks described as part of the Transition series and arranged
in a time sequence possessed closely related lithological
characteristics but there were no consistent and systematic

chronological relationships.

The classification of rocks used by Richardson in describing the
Primitive and Transition series has very little resemblance to the
classifications of today. This is not surprising. The study of
geology was only beginning and the rocks of Britain older than the
Secondary were folded and complex making it very difficult to unravel
the correct stratigraphic sequences. However, in 1831, only six years
after Richardson had delivered his lectures, Roderick Murchison and
Adam Sedgwick (Geikie, 1962, p. 414, 424), working independently,
started their researches into the sequence of the older rocks of
England and Wales with splendid results. Within a decade the Silurian
and Cambrian geological systems were established (Geikie, 1962, p.

414-20, 424-7; Murchison, 1839), bringing a new stratigraphic order

to the classification of the older rocks, although an unfortunate
controversy raged for years over where the dividing line between the

Silurian and the Cambrian should be established.

It has proved much more difficult to interpret the geological
history of the rocks older than the Cambrian. Beginning in the 1840s,
classic work on these ancient rocks was begun by William Logan (1863,
p. v-vii, 22-86), supported by other members of the Geological Survey
of Canada. Logan and his associates investigated the crystalline
rocks of southern Canada, sometimes working in areas adjacent to
Lakes Huron and Superior which the Franklin exploring expedition had

passed on its way to the Arctic.

A diagram follows the lectures on the Transition class and shows
the relationships of granite to various other rocks. This demonstrates
graphically that Richardson recognized mineralogical linkages between
rocks and the close relationships of the Transition rocks to the
Primitive series, since the granite at the base of the diagram may
be taken as a part of the Primitive class. Along the left-hand
column the granite passes via intermediate rocks into a conglomerate
and greywacke of the Transition class, along the vertical column the
granite passes from gneiss and clay slate to Transition clay slate,
and along the three right-hand columns it passes into various other

Transition rocks.

Lectures 7-10. By the 1820s geologists had attained considerable
success in bringing some order into classifying Secondary and Tertiary
strata, that is rocks ranging from the Old Red Sandstone, which is
Devonian in age, to the present, and the geological history described
here has largely stood the test of time. Through Conybeare and
Phillips (1822), Richardson benefited both from William Smith's (1815,
1817) work on the Secondary strata of England and from the |
investigations of Thomas Webster (1814, 1816) on the Tertiary. In
these lectures there is a roll call of formations made famous in
geological literature by the classic work of such men. Figure 2 lists
many of these formations. Although Jemeson (1821, p. 382-401)
described these beds, Conybeare and Phillips (1822, p. 58-470) was the

23

main source of information, and enabled Richardson to go into considerable

detail in describing many strata.

Problems in nomenclature arise if rock-stratigraphic units and
time-stratigraphic units are confused. For instance, the Old Red
Sandstone is a rock-stratigraphic unit which geologists of the early
19th century found difficult to date and classify because of the
scarcity of fossils. Working together, Murchison and Sedgwick
(Geikie, 1962, p. 430-3) studied these strata in detail and used the
rocks of the Old Red Sandstone to define the Devonian System, a time-
stratigraphic unit. Mountain Limestone, so called because it often
formed the tops of mountains, is now identified as of Lower
Carboniferous age. The Coal Measures is now considered to be of
Upper Carboniferous age, and the New Red Sandstone is recognized as
of Triassic age, the base of the Mesozoic. The M-Calcstone, the
Muschelkalk of continental geologists, is considered today to be of
Triassic age, and the Lias as of Jurassic age. Figure 2 shows these
correlations. The names of formations do not necessarily describe
the rock types they contain. The Old Red Sandstone and the New Red
Sandstone as one notes from Richardson's descriptions contain some

rock types that are neither red nor sandstone.

Richardson suggested that the limestone on the west shore of
Lake Winnipeg, and the bitumen of Pierre au Calumet together with some
sedimentary rocks along the Mackenzie river were of Lower Carboniferous
age. Today they are recognized (Camsell and Malcolm, 1821, Map 1585;
Douglas, 1970, Map 1250A) as of Ordovician, and of Devonian and
Cretaceous ages respectively. Along Slave river the limestone beds
are softer and Richardson considered that they, together with the
strata of the Salt Plains visited on the 1823 expedition, passed into
Magnesian Limestone; rocks that are thought to be of Silurian age

today.

Professor Buckland (1821, p. 450-68; 1823, p. xlvii-xlviii), as
Richardson suggested, had attempted to correlate the rock formations
of Britain and continental Europe. Such comparisons were still very
difficult to make because palaeontological work had barely begun, so

that Richardson's comparisons across the Atlantic were very sketchy

and audacious. There are many comments on organic remains and the
names of a few characteristic fossils are given, but Richardson did
not discuss in detail how fossils could be used to define geological

horizons.

Richardson provided considerable detail on the Oolitic Formation,
identified today as Jurassic in age, which William Smith had
investigated so thoroughly. Smith (1815, 1817) identified and mapped
the strata using such names as Cornbrash, Coral Rag, and Kimmeridge
Clay. Back's notes are not clear here; there is some confusion
between strata of the Upper, Middle and Lower Divisions of the Oolitic
limestones, and also between strata of the Upper and Lower Beds
within the Lower Division. Conybeare and Phillips (1822, p. 59)
listed the beds as follows: (i) Upper Division: Purbeck beds,
Portland Oolite, and Kimmeridge Clay; (ii) Middle Division: Coral
Rag, Oxford Clay; (iii) Lower Division: (a) Upper Beds, Cornbrash,
Stonesfield slate, Forest Marble, Great Oolite; (b) Lower Beds:
Fullers' Earth, Inferior Oolite, Sand and Marlestone; with the Lias

beds underlying all this.

The Iron Sand, Weald Clay, Green Sand, Chalk Marl, and Chalk
are today considered as being Cretaceous in age. The famous "Chalks
with Flints" was mentioned, and Richardson stated that chalk was
unknown in America, although it is now known to be present. His only
general remark on the use of fossils for correlation occurs in Lecture
10, and it was very tentative: "Genera the same Species characteristic

of Beds.--Suites above Chalk different."

Lecture 10. The first classification of the Tertiary rocks into
an organized sequence of beds was accomplished by French geologists
(Geikie, 1962, p. 341-5) working in the Paris Basin in the late 18th
and early 19th centuries. Thomas Webster (1814, 1816) described
similar beds on the Isle of Wight, establishing the sequence of
Tertiary rocks in Britain. Conybeare and Phillips (1822, p. 6-57)
made full use of Webster's work, on which Richardson in turn based his
lectures. Webster had described (1814) the alternation of rocks

deposited in marine and fresh water which is characterisitic of the

25

26

Tertiary rocks in Britain. Richardson noted this in his introductory
lecture, but he did not discuss this further in the more detailed
exposition in Lecture 10. The alternation of beds has to be inferred
from the sequence of formations described. The London Clay and the
various marine and fresh water formations mentioned are considered

to be of Eocene age today.

Despite the fact that Richardson included the Diluvial and
Alluvial as major classes of rocks in his introductory lecture, he
did not describe any formations younger than the Tertiary in these
last lectures. The Diluvial and Alluvial beds only received incidental

comments in a few places.

Lecture 11. Richardson ended the lecture series with a few
brief remarks on volcanic rocks based on Jameson (1821, p. 424-32).
Richardson obviously was aware that the volcanics did not fit into
the stratigraphic sequence he had been following when he said that
the volcanics were classified "more by the Chemical than the Geological
Character". The lectures ended abruptly with no effort made to pull
together the many and diverse geological topics considered over many

weeks in the fall and early winter of 1825-26.

CROSS SECTIONS

Three cross sections follow the written notes. They provide a
valuable summary of Richardson's classification and a clearer picture
of the sequence of rocks in the various classes than can be obtained
from some of the lectures. The first cross section, on two pages,
includes the entire sequence of rocks from granite to alluvium (Fig.
3); the second, also on two pages, shows the Secondary beds in greater
detail; and the third, on one page, the Tertiary. No locations are
given for the cross sections, but it is evident that the two more
comprehensive cross sections cut across much of England, and that the

one of the Tertiary is of the London basin.

It is necessary only to comment on the first, most comprehensive,

cross section. The main formations of the Primitive series are shown

as vertical beds. They are higher in altitude than the other series
and are eroded into peaks and valleys, with narrow bands of porphyry
and quartz rock deliberately drawn so as to indicate that they are
resistant to erosion. Transition rocks are hardly present in the
diagram; only one bed of greywacke is shown. The Secondary strata
do not dip quite as steeply as the Primitive, and they are distinctly
lower in elevation. Coal seams are shown in the Carboniferous
Limestone. Tertiary beds dip quite gently. Thin diluvial deposits
are shown in the low spots of the Primitive series, and thicker
deposits overlie the Secondary and Tertiary in horizontal layers.
Scattered patches of alluvium cover the diluvium. Under the diagram
are summary annotations of characteristic fossil assemblages for the
different beds. These are more clearly presented than the lists of

organic remains provided in the lectures.

There is no way of telling whether Back copied the cross sections
from Richardson or from one of the books on geology available to him.

Perhaps they are a combination of both.

RICHARDSON'S PUBLISHED GEOLOGICAL REPORTS OF 1823 AND 1828

Richardson's geology can be placed in wider perspective by
examining his published geological reports on the areas traversed by
the two Franklin land expeditions (Fig. 1). The first report,
"Geognostical Observations", is 41 pages long and was published in
1823 (in Franklin, 1823, p. 497-538); the second, "Topographical
and Geological Notices", first read before the Geological Society of
London, comprises 58 pages and was published in 1828 (in Franklin,

1828b, p. i-lviii, Appendix No. 1).

The "Geognostical Observations" of 1823 was organized simply,
according to the expedition's itinerary. Richardson recorded in
succession the different kinds of rocks observed in travelling from
York Factory to the Arctic Ocean. By this route, Richardson, of
course, crossed the Precambrian Canadian Shield after leaving the
Hudson Bay Lowland, and then for many miles followed approximately

the boundary between the Shield and the Paleozoic rocks. Occasionally

27

28

he digressed from the seriatim description of rocks seen en route,
and discussed the wider distribution of a particular formation, for
instance the exposure of limestone in various places from Lake

Winnipeg to the Mackenzie river (in Franklin, 1823, p. 505-7).

Richardson used (ibid. p. 534-8) the terms Primitive, Transition,
Secondary and Alluvial in discussing the rocks of British North
America. Many specimens of rocks were brought back to Great Britain,
and the assistance of Robert Jameson was secured in identifying them.
Very little use seems to have been made of fossils in classifying

strata.

Richardson (tbtd. p. 501-5, 509-11, 511-34) noted occurrences
of Primitive rock right through the Far North to the shores of the
Arctic Ocean. He suggested (tbtd. p. 535) that gneiss appeared to
be the most extensively distributed rock, and gave (tbid. p. 520) a
special name to the gneissic region east of the Coppermine river,
calling it the "Barren Ground formation". He implied (ibid. p. 520,
535) that gneiss was inimical to vegetation, and that it might have
been a factor in restricting the growth of trees, as he also suggested
in his lectures. Richardson wrote (tbid. p. 527, 528, 536) that there
were Old and New Red Sandstone rocks on the Coppermine river, and that
the Copper Mountains were principally composed of trap, related to
the Secondary class (tbid. p. 528, 537). Jameson had identified these
rocks from hand specimens brought back to Britain, and the Edinburgh
scholar's annotations are (in Richardson, 1819-22) repeated almost
word for word in Richardson's printed report. It is now known that
all the rocks are of Precambrian age, indicating how difficult it was

for Jameson to classify them.

A summary description of the distribution of the Primitive,
Transition, and Secondary rocks noted in the field was provided (in
Franklin, 1823, p. 534-8) in conclusion. In the course of describing
the trap, Secondary trap and porphyry rocks of the Arctic Coast,
Richardson (tbtd. p. 537) expressed the most definite views he was to
make at this time on the debate concerning the Neptunist or Vulcanist

origin of rocks:

Many of these trap and porphyry rocks presented the
columnar structure which has been considered as
indicative of a volcanic origin, but their other
characters and the horizontal strata upon which they
reposed seemed to give them a still greater claim to
Neptunian origin. Our opportunities of observation,
however, were much too limited to permit us to offer
a decided opinion upon this disputed point.

These sentences demonstrate how Richardson was inclined to be cautious,
and that he had not yet jettisoned the Neptunist ideas of Werner and

Jameson.

In the summary Richardson, (in Franklin, 1823, p. 537-8) referred
to extensive alluvial deposits, and mentioned that many boulders were
observed. He stated that large rolled blocks of stone had been
attributed to the Flood, but he did not use the term diluvial.
Richardson (tbid. p. 538) reported that the blocks he saw on the
Barren Grounds were angular in form and closely related to the
underlying bed rock and probably represented the remains of durable

rock after erosion.

The geognosy is very dull reading, seeming to be an endless
description of rocks with very few generalizations. It becomes
interesting when one bears in mind the geological concepts underlying
Richardson's descriptions and makes an attempt, using a modern

geological map, to ascertain which formations were described.

The "Topographical and Geological Notices" of 1828 had some
welcome differences. Richardson once more described the kinds of
rocks observed en route, but he made a greater effort to provide
regional generalizations. The account is still organized according
to the sequence of exploration, this time beginning with the
expedition's arrival at Great Bear Lake. Richardson, however, had
much more information available to him, including data from the
earlier expedition. He also made use (in Franklin, 1828b, p. xxvii-
xxiv) of secondary accounts, such as those of Sir Alexander Mackenzie
(1801) on the northern Rockies and Edwin James (1823) on the southern
Rockies, and incorporated information (tbtd. p. lvii) supplied by fur

traders. However, on this expedition, most of Richardson's own field

29

30

observations were made and the rocks and fossils collected in the
exploring season of 1826, after the lectures considered here were
delivered. Much greater use was made of fossils in identifying
strata than in the 1823 "Geognostical Observations". This is a much
more interpretative report; generalizations came much easier to
Richardson and he made some apt regional comparisons. There was even
a sense of wonder introduced, as when he confessed (in Franklin,
1828b, p. xlviii, xl) to being perplexed by surface features which
we now know to be caused by permafrost. On the whole this was a
fuller and considerably more interesting geological essay than the

earlier report.

Richardson (tbtd. p. ii-li) discussed the rocks observed at
Great Bear Lake, Bear Lake River, and those of the Mackenzie River
and the Arctic Coast, organizing each into a regional description

of the types of rocks observed.

Major differences in kinds of rocks were usually recognized by
Richardson, but he did not have the detailed knowledge of fossils,
nor the time to study many stratigraphic sections, to date formations
definitively. He recognized (ibid. p. xvii-xviii, xxxi-xxxviii) that
the rocks on the west side of Great Bear Lake and along the Mackenzie
River were sedimentary, including a lignite formation and bituminous
shales; they are now known to be of Cretaceous and Devonian age.
Fossils from Bear Lake River were brought back to England, and William
Sowerby (tbtd. p. xiii) tentatively identified them as "probably
referrible to some of the Oolites near the Oxford clay." This is a
good approximation of their age, because the rocks today are recognized
as of Jurassic age. Lignite and bituminous strata on the Mackenzie
River were described (tbtd. p. xvii-xix) and Potters Clay on that
river was mentioned (ibid. p. xix) but Richardson did not establish
their stratigraphic relationships. Richardson's tour from the mouth
of the Mackenzie to Cape Krusenstern along the Arctic Coast is of
great geological interest, because as he proceeded on his journey he
correctly recognized a succession of major geological formations.
The following sequence was described (tbid. p. xli-xlviii): bituminous

alum shale east of the mouth of the Mackenzie, limestone at Cape Parry,

trap east of Cape Lyon, followed by the limestone once more at Cape
Krusenstern. These rock types are recognized today to be respectively

of Cretaceous, Silurian, Precambrian, and Silurian age.

Richardson mentioned (in Franklin, 1828b, p. viii-ix, p. xiv)
boulders whenever he encountered them, and in contradiction to his
1823 report (in Franklin, 1823, p. 538) he recognized that they had
been transported from elsewhere. In 1825-26 on Great Bear Lake, he
identified (in Franklin, 1828b, p. vii-ix) granite boulders which he
thought must have come from the Fort Enterprise area, 275 kilometres
to the southeast (Fig. 1). He based this interpretation partly on
information obtained in his travels of 1820-21. This likely was the
first published evidence of the northward transportation of boulders
in Canada. Richardson proposed no mechanism to explain the movement,
and nowhere in his report did he mention striations on bed rock. In
the 1890s, J.B. Tyrrell (1896, p. 177-84) made observations of a
similar nature on the direction of the movements of boulders which he
then used as part of this evidence to hypothesize the former
existence of a source region of continental ice somewhere west of
Hudson Bay. Tyrrell (tbtd. p. 175F-7F) called this area, from where
he suggested the ice had radiated outward, the Keewatin centre of

continental glaciation.

Most of the 1828 report concerned the rocks north of Great Slave
Lake covering the new areas explored by the expedition, but in the
concluding sections Richardson (in Franklin, 1828b, p. l1i-lviii)
described in just eight pages the geological formations extending
southwards to Lake Winnipeg. In this fine summary he presented the

gross areal distribution of the different kinds of rocks more clearly

than it was described in the conclusion of the 1823 report (in Franklin,

1823, p. 534-8). He had more data to work with, including Dr. J.J.
Bigsby's (1824) account of the geology of the Lake Huron region.
Richardson attempted to trace the boundary between the Primitive and
the Secondary strata across British North America, that is, the
boundary between the Precambrian Canadian Shield and the younger

Paleozoic rocks. Sir Alexander Mackenzie was credited by Richardson

Sil

(in Franklin, 1828b, p. lii) as making an original and important
remark in noting that fundamental boundary in the geological
formations of North America. Some of the main scenic features of
the Shield were described (tbid. p. liii) very effectively. The
limestone on the Athabaska, Slave and Mackenzie Rivers was identified
(tbid. p. liv-lviii) as Magnesian limestone and some of the
fossils were listed. Richardson believed (tbid. p. lvi-lvii) that
the Athabaska limestone belonged to the Magnesian formation,
included in the Permian of today, because of the bitumen and
associated salt springs it contained, but pointed out (tbid. p.
lvii) that on the basis of the fossils he had brought back to
England geologists identified the formation as Mountain Limestone,
that is of Lower Carboniferous age. Actually it is neither; the

rocks are Devonian in age.

Richardson already had a good command of mineralogy when he
wrote his 1823 report, and there is no indication from the lectures
of 1825/26 or the 1828 report that his knowledge of rocks had
substantially increased or that his concepts had altered significantly
during those few additional years. Describing and identifying the
rocks of the Precambrian Canadian Shield was a special problem.
When Richardson's published geological reports of the early part
of the 19th century are compared to the reconnaissance geological
descriptions of the Barren Grounds written by J.B. Tyrrell (1896)
near the end of the 19th century the reader is struck by the fact
that in one particular aspect they are not all that different.
Tyrrell, it is true, included much more physical geology, and the
concept of continental glaciation was available to him to help
identify and interpret physical features such as till plains,
moraines, eskers, boulders and striae which are inevitably encountered
in most parts of Canada, but there is considerable similarity in the
broad general way Richardson and Tyrrell described and identified
rocks in the field. This is not so strange. When it comes to the
rocks of the Precambrian Canadian Shield, all that a reconnaissance
geologist could do, whether he was writing near the opening or the

closing of the 19th century, was to identify the rocks as best he

could and leave interpretations and age correlations to a more

advanced era.

A great deficiency in both of Richardson's reports is the
absence of geological maps. Locations of a few major classes of
rocks, such as Primitive, Floetz Limestone, and Mountain Limestone,
and the names of some rocks are printed on general maps (Franklin,
1823, 1828b) included in the published reports on the expeditions
depicting routes and areas explored. But they are inadequate.
Richardson's presentation of geological data would have been
greatly enhanced and his interpretations clarified if he had mapped
the formations he described. Since this was not done, many of the
short descriptions of the distribution of geological formations
remain unrelated verbal fragments within the text and tend to

become lost.

CONCLUSION

In his two printed geological reports Richardson gave good
evidence that he was a precise and exact field observer. His
lectures too exemplified this. Geology was presented by
Richardson as an observational science, not a body of speculative
theory. Nor did he spend time dreaming about the economic
possibilities of the rock formations he had examined in British
North America. The austerity in approach is further substantiated

by the limited mixing of religion, teleology and geology, in

contrast to the works of other contemporary writers. The sentiments

on the "regularity of Natures most stupendous works" leading "the
Mind to a higher Veneration of Omnipotence and Divine Being" at
the beginning of the lectures, or Richardson's (in Franklin, 1823,

p. 538) concluding sentence in the "Geognostical Observations",

We may conclude with observing, that the preceding
details shew that in the regions we traversed, the rocks
of the primitive, transition, secondary, and alluvial
classes have the same general composition, structure,
position and distribution, as in other parts of America
which been examined; and as these agree in all respects
with the rock formations in Europe and Asia, they may
with propriety be considered as universal formations,
parts of a grand and harmonious whole, the production
of infinite wisdom.

33

34

are just normal for the time, and don't affect the general tone
of his lectures or published reports. Richardson's main aim in
the lectures was to give his fellow officers some knowledge of
how strata were classified, i.e., a knowledge of basic geology,
rather than to describe the regional geology of the area they
were exploring. Local examples were occasionally mentioned,

but Richardson had considerably more information on the geology
of British North America at his command, gained on the 1819-22
expedition and the journeys of the summer of 1825, which he could

have imparted to the officers in his lectures.

The lectures very clearly date from the geological world
of the 1820s. Werner's ideas were on the way out, but his Primitive
and Transition classes were still bedevilling geological work.

Very shortly after Richardson's geological lectures were delivered,
a new intellectual arsenal for classifying strata was ready for
field geologists who were to continue the task of exploring the
geology of British North America. Richardson's geological
observations and lectures of the 1820s still show the intellectual
lineage of an earlier era in geological thought, so that there in
the High Arctic we are carried back to the heroic period of geology
(Zittel, 1901, p. 46) when great debates on fundamental geological
matters raged as the discipline was being founded as an empirical

science.

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Back, G. (1825/26). Lecture notes made by Back during a course
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Bigsby, J.J. (1825b). Notes on the Geography and Geology of Lake
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Buckland, William. (1821). Notice of a Paper laid before the
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Cormack, W. E. (1928). Narrative of a Journey Across the Island
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Douglas, R.J.W., editor. (1970). Geology and Economic Minerals
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Humboldt, A. (1823). A Geognostical Essay on the Superposition of
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Hutton, J. (1795). Theory of the Earth, With Proofs and
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Mackenzie, A. (1801). Voyages from Montreal on the River St.
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(Reprint of 1802 edition).

Richardson, J. (1819-22). Robert Jameson's Manuscript Notes on
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Strata of England and Wales, with Part of Scotland, London:
John Cary, 51 p.

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38

Smith, W. (1817). Stratigraphical System of Organized Fossils
with Reference to the Specimens of the Original Geological
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Tyrrell, J.B. (1896). Report on the Doobaunt, Kazan and Ferguson
Rivers and the North-West Coast of Hudson Bay, Geological
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2lENp-

Wahlenberg, G. (1820). Flora Upsaliensis, Upsaliae.

Warkentin, J. (1967). David Thompson's Geology: A Document,
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Webster, T. (1814). On the Freshwater Formations of the Isle of
Wight, with some Observations on the Strata over the Chalk
in the South-east Part of England, Transactions of the
Geological Society of London, Vol. II, p. 161-254.

Webster, T. (1816). Observations on the Strata of the Isle of
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Dorsetshire,in H.C. Englefield, A Description of the
Principal Picturesque Beauties, Antiquities, and Geological
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Werner, A.G. (1809). New Theory of the Formation of Veins; with
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End of the Nineteenth Century, London: W. Scott, xiii + 562 p.

Notes made by Lieutenant George Back during a series of lectures
on geology given at Fort Franklin on Great Bear Lake by Dr. John
Richardson from October 7th, 1825 to January 13th, 1826.

Lieutenant Back's Notebook is on permanent loan by J. Pares, Esq.,
to the Scott Polar Research Institute, where it is catalogued as
MS.395/1 in the Institute's Archives.

The text, sketches and cross section are reproduced by permission
of the Scott Polar Research Institute.

Page numbers of the Note book and comments are in square brackets.
Sketches are reproduced in the places they appear in the notes.

October 7 1825 - Lecture 15€ by Dr. Richardson

Geology - Is a Science that treats on the structure and formation
of Rocks - and Earths - and the studying of it convinces one, of
the regularity of Natures most stupendous works and leads the Mind

to a higher Veneration of the omnipotence and Divine Being-

The Ancients had erroneous opinions of Geology - but in more recent
Times acute observers have assigned good reasons for the apparent
confused irregularity of the Nucleus or Surface of the World- they
have found effects from causes and proved the beautiful Order of

this part of the Almighty's Works.-

Geology is useful - particularly to the Traveller, whom it instructs
in the knowledge of the Country through which he may pass- It teaches

him where to look for Springs - Minerals - and valuable Earths-

In civilized Countries - the different formations are often shewn
in the Houses or larger Buildings - which are generally constructed
of the Material found in the vicinity of the Neighbourhood - or at

least in the Country-

To be a Geologist - a Person ought to be acquainted with Mineralogy

[2] and Botany - in order to know how to Class and arrange-

39

40

But an acquaintance with five different Kinds of Rock, appears to

be sufficient for common purposes.

These are

Quartz - which is vitrious & translucent-
Feldspar - foliated - even & tabular-
Mica - smooth - in layers - & pliable-
Hornblende - irregular - streaked-

Limestone - greyish white - easily scratched by a Knife.-

Quartz forms about à the surface of the World- it has a glassy

appearance and is too hard to be scratched by the Knife - this
circumstance will always detect it from Limestone- it is of

different Colours-

Feldspar -- may be scratched with a knife, though but faintly- it
is of different colours- and may be known from quartz from its

fracture, &c.-

Mica - is soft - and easily separated into leaves- it is transparent

and has a Metallic appearance-

Hornblende - is black - glittering - and splintered- when breathed

on - it becomes dull - and emits a strong [3] bitter odour-

Limestone - varies in Colour - but is often greyish yellow- it is

sometimes mixed with quartz-

Lecture 2e - Friday 14 October
In decomposition - Sand - Limestone and Clay-

Simple Rocks - as Limestone- Compound a° - as Granite - Aggregated

and Conglomerated. Mountain Rocks-

Mechanical Debris - of old Rocks - where loose Sand or Gravel is
found and the pieces appear rounded or loosely cemented - as

Sandstone - Pudding a°-

Aggregated - as Granite-
Porphyritic - having dissociated Crystals embedded.-

Amygdaloidal - with Cavities either empty of filled (not certain

of the Cause) either Air or Water[?]
indeterminately Aggregated in opposition to Simply Aggregated-
Granular Structure- by cohesion as in Granite-

Sandstone - Tabular as in Mica Slate - owing to the flatness of the

Mica-

Double Granular Structure - as Gneiss - Gran-Slaty - and Slaty-Gran-

Graphic Granite or Porphyritic Granite with Crystals-
Slaty Phorphyry with Crystals-
Prophyritic Amygdaloid- and Basalt-

Strata - when inclined emerge from beneath each other pA

and what in Geology would be termed the lowest often forms the ee

K

highest part of the Mountain or Hill-
Chain of Mountains - Central Ridge-

Tabular Strata - Clevage of a Bed as in Slate Containing Mag" Iron

Ore - as ————————————

STII IF

[4] Fissures in Trap Rocks- do not determine the Strata-

Observe in Strata the Angle of inclination - or Pitch of inclination

and dip = as Z of 45 dip S-

Columnar Structure - (Giants Causeway) - are worn away by the Action

of Air and Water and leave the Cap and Ball as = si

41

Boulders of Granite - Great Bear Lake -

Veins - are irregular - broken and branch off in various

directions - as

not parallel.-

te 5 ae n ;
Primitive Formation - Transition For - Secondary - Tertiary -

Diluvial - and Alluvial

Primitive is the lowest - and has a more crystalized - aspect -

forms the highest Hills and is destitute of Organic Remains.-
Granitic Gneiss - Mica Slate - Quartz Rock

Clay Slate and primitive Limestone-

Granite alternates with other Rocks.-

Gneiss Formation - in more alternate layers or Beds uniting with

Clay Slate Formation - or one may be wanting -- Superposition of
formations-
Transition Formation - Conglom= Structure as Greywacke - (if portions

are small (Slate) - Pudding Stone - Prim - Limestone Slate Transition

Limestone- Black - containing Organic remains-

- Trap - Earthy aspect ce en. to Primitive [5] Crystal - highly

inclined Strata - or Vertical

Secondary Class - Old Red SandStone - Magnesiun Limestone containing
Salt - Clay - Lias Limestone - Marbeck Marble - (as old Statues in

Churches-) Chalk Marl - Bituminous Shale or Coal Formation-

Tertiary Formation - appearance of recent Shells (Second” appears
mineralized) layers of Marine Shells alternating with layers of fresh

water Shells- (Crag of Suffolk)

Note - Organic Remains are of unknown kinds with some few

exceptions - to those of the present type - (London Clay)

November fees = Lect’ © su

Tertiary Formation - are found Land Animals alternate with

Sea Animals -

Flint debris of Chalk - heh css A-Lrt The

intervening space

of the Chalk will be found in the Valley, from the separation
which the Action of Water has produced-
Large pieces of detached
pp sr 7,
Yq. Whi

Rocks are often found on Lo
er Be vais

the summits of Hills - or in

places remote from where
any exist- Professor Buckland
Maintains that they were carried there (in a horizontal direction)

by the impulse of the Deluge-

Connebeare on the other hand asserts that the waters of the Deluge
have separated and washed away the softer parts - and thus formed

deep Vallies and left the masses of Rocks & c. on the tops of Hills

[6] Tropical Animals are found in parts of the World - where they
have not been known to inhabit - which is accounted for - as having
taken place in very remote Ages - where the effect of Volcanoes
(which are now extinct - was so great as to render the Temperature

of those climates favorable to their existence-

The Huttonian Theory supposes the action of subterranian Fire to be
the principal cause of the great Geological changes.- but - the
general appearance of NE Strata through out great portions of the

World - would lead to the conclusion - that such changes must have

43

22

occurred at the same moment - which perhaps may admit of doubt.-
Werner says that Granite is the oldest Rock
Hutton - affirms it to be the newest.-

Humboldt - describes - Granite with the most Quartz - (of a white
hue) as the oldest-

Granite - fine granular - resembling Sand stone- Granite component

parts of which are very iarge - as Labrador Felspar.-

(Lofty Mountains) - the summits are often composed of a fine

stratified or slaty Granite like Gneiss-

It is the Colour of Felspar that gives the name to Granite - as

"Flesh coloured &c"-

All other parts of Granite except quartz alter - and decay-
The Columnar Structure in Granite is not uncommon-

[7] Felspar decomposed forms Clay, Quartz - Sand

wherever the Mountains are rounded (if of Granite) they are soft

or loosely cemented - with steep acclivities and small Vallies-
Where they are peaked - the Granite is compact and hard.-

Sienite is composed of Horneblende and Felspar, or it is the

presence of Horneblende in Granite.-

November 5 Lecture pen

- Old Granite - has least Mica.-

Gneiss - Is a granular Slaty Rock - in which Felspar predominates -
the Mica being arranged into Slates and mixed with Quartz in the
Centre- It is stratified - and the Mica is distributed in parallel

ranges.- It is of a Greyish-Yellowish brown - and whitish black

Colour. - where there is a diminution of Felspar it becomes Mica
Sllates—

- of Felspar - is formed the fine China Clay.-

Gneiss contains - Garnets (which are of a reddish brown colour)

Horneblende, whence it becomes Horneblendic Gneiss - Limestone or

statuary Marble, in large Crystals and the purer the white - the

older it is considered to be.-
Trap-beds and Gneiss are mixed at the junction.

In Gneiss - Granite is the lowest and Mica Slate the uppermost -
in it is found - Porphry - beds of Green Stone - and Mica Slate-
Veins traversing Gneiss are filled with its component parts -
but they are not Slaty-

Gneiss contains every Mettle except Mercury

[8] Staniferous Granite next to the old a° of Humboldt-
Serpentine - a green soft Rock that yields to the Knife

Gneiss contains - embedded - fine - Gneiss -

Granite alternate - Gneiss - Stanif-d° and white Stone-

The Rocks of America are principally of the Gneiss formation.-

Granular Limestone, in Gneiss.- also Serpentine - Horneblende Slate

- Green Stone Clay Slate and Quartz which contains Sulphur

Gneiss district - in the English River- they are naked rounded Rocks

peeping through the Trees.-
Hill River - and Barren Grounds are composed of Gneiss

The Alps and Pyrennes are formed of it - so are the Andes to the

same height - above which are Volcanic Rocks.-

In New Formations - Felspar decreases and Mica increases-

Mica Slate - is formed of Quartz and Mica with little or no Felspar.-

45

46

Fine Slaty passes into Clay Slate

Mica Slate contains Garnets - and when plentiful determine it.-

Emeralds are also found in it-
Mica Slate - rests on Gneiss and is covered with Clay Slate-
Mural Precipices seldom high.

[9] Lecture ao - December 2

Granite above Mica Slate.-Compound R.-

Crystaline Limestone - white primitive-

*Clay Slate (Simple Mountain Rock - containing neither Quartz
Felspar or Mica but is homogeneous.- it is Grey-Green - Black or

Red-
Slates are of a glimmer & lustry Pearly Colour-

They may be smooth or streaked - are greasy to the touch - and

yield easily to the knife-

Clay Slate - is opaque and has a greyish dull Streak - it does not
adhere to the Tongue like Slaty Clay-

[one word is indecipherable] in Clay Slate.-
Cliffs of Clay Slate are not so rugged as

1 Mica Slate - they are of a Yellowish grey colour (reposing on

Mica Slate) and deep lustre.-
2 Clay Slate - dark grey - as roofing Slate.-
3 Greenish grey Colour

4 Bluish grey and reddish.-

To link Clay Slate to Transition-

Primitive Clay Slate has larger Scales of Mica than Transition
Slate - when it has Nodules of Limestone it is Transition in which latter

Carbon is abundant.-

Organic Remains are found in the Transition - or in the newer (one

word is indecipherable) .-
Whet Slate - found in Clay Slate-
Chlorite - a bright green.-

Talc Slate - micaceous (but not like it clastic) it is of a Tallowish

nature, and when bent remains in that position
Allum Slate - like bituminous Shale.-

Pot Stone - occurs also in Clay Slate-

Flinty Slate - also - and it is rich in Metals

Beds of Marble, &c occur in it.-

Primitive Limestone (Simple Mot Rock)

Structure - granular, large and distinct sometimes small - it is
seldom spotted- the fracture is foliated and [10] splits always in
one way - its fragments are more or less translucent - and it

yields to the knife-

Limestone attains its Maximum in Clay Slate

in it is found quartz - Scales of Mica - and the Veins are sometimes

filled with Manganese-

Foliated Green Gypsum.- Alabaster - coarser kind - Plaster of Paris-

Primitive Sienite - contains Felspar Quartz and Horneblende Porphyry

(or red) Compound Rock- It is the Basis which give the Name - and

47

48

not the Crystals. the embedded parts are generally Felspar and

quartz. it is seldom stratified and contains Chalcedony and

Agates
where there is a Peak as ae SN the rest of the

Rock is generally of a different kind.-

Primitive Trap (Stairs) In which Horneblende forms the principal

constituent part-
Seam Structure.- are very hard (Gallery) [?]

Green Horneblende Rock, when scratched it has a Mountain Green

Streak-
Brittle - when scraped the dust flies away-

Frangible - as Clay Slate where the dust remains

Green Stone - of Horneblende and Felspar but Horneblende
predominates - or (two words are indecipherable) when greyish

Green with Crystals it becomes Porphyritic Green Stone-

Green Stone Slate - Horneblende and Felspar.- Horn & Mica-.

Serpentine - is translucent at the edges it has a greasy feel and

can be cut with a knife - but not scratched like Talc-

[11] Minerals with Magnesia are found in it- It occurs in Gneiss
- Mica Slate and Clay Slate

is inimical to Vegetation - and has an Ochry Surface.-

Oophytile [Euphotide is pencilled in above Oophytile] is related

to Serpentine and is of a deep green Colour and feels uncteous to

the touch-

It is a Transition Rock - it assumes a whitish Crust-

Quartz Rock - white - reddish or Bluish - it contains Mica and

some Felspar - frequently abounds with Sulphur and Chlorite--

Granite - Gneiss - Mica Slate - and Clay Slate connected by

Oophytile [corrected in pencil to Euphotide]

th th
Lecture 6 December 9
Transition Formation

Plants (in Organic Remains) found in the Northern Region are similar
to those found in Tropical Regions.-

Ferns and Mosses &c are embedded in those Rocks which are principally
composed of Carbon - whilst those containing Animals - Corals &c

have a greater proportion of Lime-

Brexia (or fragments of other Rocks)

Transition, is distinguished from others - by the Rocks being
conglomerate

Humboldt - considers Euphitide - as the newest in this Series-

Greywacke - is fine grained - allied to Sandstone and Porphyries
with glassy Felspar, connected with the Volcanic Species.-
Greywacke or brexia of Pudding Stone - in which are mixed -
Granite - Lime Stone - Gneiss - Mica Slate - Clay Slate - Sienite -
(Anchitite) - Trap and Gypsum.-

According to Humboldt it may be determined in Schistos - Porphyry -
Sienite - Granular and [12] compact Limestone - ae Euphitide and
5 Aggregated Rocks.-

Greywacke occurs in different parts of the Transition Series -
Groups of Rocks of two or more Kind - are found to preserve the
Same Characters in opposite points of the Globe.-

- Stactitic Granular LimeStone-

49

50

2 Transit Porphyry with Sienite and Crystals of Horneblende -
and with Horneblende - also black LimeStone.-

de

4-

5 Porphyries

6 Serpentine Rock-

Greywacke consists of fragments of Quartz Felspar - Lydian Stone

and Clay Slate, connected by Basis of Clay Slate.

Greywacke Slate - when the Parts are nearly invisible - it is
Transition Clay Slate - and is liable to a change of Aspect - it
passes from Slaty Rocks to Sienitic Rocks.

Pudding Stone - connected to Greywacke consists of Granite Gneiss
Clay Slate and newer transition Rocks. Basis highly Silisified -

when approaching to Quartz or Sand Stone there are no Organic remains.

Alum Slate - formed of Carbon and Sulphur is of a bluish Black

Colour - retains its Colour when scratched with a knife and has a
Glistering appearance - is determined from Bituminous Shale from
the latter having a Brownish Streak-

Glassy Alum Slate-

Glance Coal - no bituminous Smell - Shines like Jet and has a
Slaty Fracture- it is allied to Graphite (or Carbon and Iron -
(Blacklead)

[13] Granhite in Gneiss.-

Carbon attains its maximum in the great Coal Measures-

Glance Coal in Transition Rock contains Organic Remains-

Fish are found in Transition Clay Slate.-

Greywacke and Clay Slate are in a greater proportion throughout the
World than the Primitive Rocks- Many Mountains in Switzerland -
America - Europe - are formed of this Formation.- (Pyrennees)
Cornwall - Tin Mines.

It contains compact Quartz-

Transition LimeStone - compact - fracture splintry - translucent

at the Edges - it varies much in Colour - sometimes Black

traversed by Veins of Felspar.- so black sometimes as to mark the
Fingers-

Foetid LimeStone - smell of Sulphur - is compact and fine Granular-
Most of the fine and ornamental Marbles belong to the Transition
Formation - whilst that of Statues &c is primitive.-

Lydian Stone found in Beds or Masses in Limestone- Mica also
occurs.- Organic Remains not numerous Entrochite - Mediapore &c

- are found in the oldest Rocks.

Transition LimeStone is less cavernous than Secondary

Porphyritic Rock or Brexia - Tables of the Law supposed to be
written on Sienite.-

Gneiss and Mica Slate are found in the Transition Series-

Quartz Rock - Granular with Scales of Mica-

[14] Red Sand Stone - immediately succeeds Transition Series- all
Granular Rocks pass into each other-

Trap Rocks &c

Basalt - Volcanic Origin, allied to Green Stone - the latter passes
into Sienite-

ly

Amygdoloid - basis gen Horneblende - when Reddish is Porphyritic-

Transition Euphitide or Serpentine - beds of reddish Jasper-.

th th
[15] Lecture 7 December 16
Floetz, in horizontal Strata.-
Secondary Series-. Old Red Sandstone - New due Magnesian
Limestone - Lias - Oolite Series Purbeck Clay - Argillacious
Marl - Chalk - Marl and Chalk.

- Secondary Formation, unequally developped-

Old Red Sandstone - Coarse grained - of a Brownish red Color-
composed of a greater part of Quartz - Felspar and Mica- Basis

hard.

Slaty Structure - sometimes grey- with Scales of Mica - its purplish

Color distinguishing it from newer Red Sandstone.

Bil

52

Page 14 of Back's notebook

Corn Stone - as calcareous concretions found in it-

Trap Tuff - Basis Amygdaloidal.-

Peat Stone of different Colors - Porphyritic- few Organic remains
found in old Red Sand Stone - Mountains of it are frequently 2 or

3000 feet - with highly inclined Strata.- it is connected with the

Coal Measures.

Mountain LimeStone - prevalent Colour is Yellowish Grey- but it
passes into Greyish White - and Greyish Blue- it has a red - a
Yellow Tint - as in Lake Winnipeg a bluish Grey as in McKenzie's
River- some of its Beds are granular and foliated some softer as
in Slave River - passing into Magnesian Limestone.- Nodules of
Chert or Flinty Slate - with Iron Pyrites occur in it - and it is
very Cavernous

Beds of Trap &c

It is rich in Metalliferous Ores & Lead Mines

Bitumen is found in it as at Pierre au Calumet

Zoophytes exist - and Verterbrae of Fish-

Trilobites allied to Crabs.

Encynee - Shells &c - Coralines - occur.

[16] the Tops of Mountains are often formed of Mill Stone Grit -
but it becomes more [word omitted?] when it approaches Primitive
Rocks - as McKenzies River-

the thickness of Stratum is at right Angles to the Beds.-

Springs are found at the Bases but not on the sides of Mountain

Limestone as St. Winnifreds Well - Flintshire-

Coal Measure - succeeds to Mountain Limestone- Mill Stone Grit -
contains more Silex than the Sandstones-

Shale (or thin Slate) Nodules of Clay Iron Stone- It forms Table
Lands - and is most important series (-Coal Measure)

Sandstone Slate - Iron Stone and Shale-

Slate becomes coarser and passes into Sand Stone-

Black bituminous Coal (Glance Coal without bitumen)

Slate Clay or Shale affords a dull Streak of a grey bluish Colour-

Clay Slate by accrease of Bituminous Matter it passes into Coal-

53

54

Bituminous Shale contains impressions of Ferns &c-

Sand Stone - with Carbonaceous Matter with Mica-

Clay Iron Stone occurs laying in rows-

Potters Clay - beds of Graphite-

Iron Pyrites - abundant - it burns with a sulphureous Smell-

Trunks - Stems &c found in it.

It forms a round and soft Outline-

The Strata often follow the inequalities of the surface - sometimes

highly inclined-

[17] Lecture a December 23°

Coal Measure - separated by Lime Stone with layers of Clay.-
Magnesian Limestone - by Humboldt Alpine Limestone- there is another
Sandstone between the Old and New Red Sandstone on the Continent.-
Mag-Limestone lies between the Coal Measure and Sandstone- the
existence of Gypsum determines it to belong to the New Red
Sandstone-

Mag-Limestone is of a light fawn or Salmon Colour - is traversed
by Veins of Calcspar (which is the shining substance) it is
sometimes found Slaty - and in Slabs - and dissolves slowly in
Acids.- It contains - Gypsum and Rock Salt - as those on the Salt
Plains on Slave River.- the Soil near it is poor in Herbage -

the Yellow Rose flourishes.- it contains foetid Limestone - it is

called Dolomite or Mag-Limestone-

It is two Beds - separated by Marl in Yorkshire.- is Cavernous -
Organic Remains very common - impressions of Fish &c - Gryphites
Entrochites - Trlobites [sic] - &c - Bones of Crocodiles have been
found.-

It forms low Hills - about 500 Feet at most- the Beds are sometimes
arched - & sometimes horizontal-

New Red Sandstone - or variegated Sandstone - small Granular - -
grains of Quartz Mica - cemented by Clay. is from Chocolate to
Salmon Colour- disposed in Zones and often spotted-

Red Marl - remarkable for Fissures - [18] - crumbles easily - and

affords large Sandy Tracks- it is argillaceous with grains of

Felspar - sometimes Amygdoloidal and sometimes passes into Trap
Rock. when Slaty - it shews that it contains plates of Mica-
New Red Sandstone may always be distinguished by its containing
Gypsum and Rock Salt. is destitute of Petrifactions - and its
Hills are Seldom higher than 800 feet- Beds nearly horizontal .-
Salt and Mineral Springs occur- Gypsum - granular- or foliated
- fibrous &c - is compact - white or Grey-

Muritiferous Clay - Colours veriegated.- Contains disseminated
Pyrites-

Alabaster - Gypsum or Spar (of which are made Vases - Necklaces
&c- No organic Remains found- is compact - in parallel Lines.-

The Towns whose names end in which - are celebrated for having

Salt in their Vicinity - 216 Salt works were worked at or near

Nantwich in Cheshire in Elizabeths Reign.-

1S)
Lecture on December 29 B

Covering the New Red Sandstone or Red Marl are the Oolitic Limestones-
Sands and Clays which form small Hills separated by Clay Vallies -

in which Organic Remains are generally found-

M - Calcstone - a Shelly Limestone or Humboldts Limestone of
Gottingen- it is of a white-palish Color - Granular &c - [19]
containing Horn Stone passing into Flint Gypsum and Coals- Shells
abundant but Corals are rare- Bones of Animals also are said to be
found- Buckland supposes it to be the same as the Lias-

- Sandstone or Sandy Marl - fine white - granular - containing Lias

- Shells &c Jura Limestone - containing Gypsum and a little Sandstone

Lias - with thick Argillaceous deposits- it lies over the red Marl
in England and appears striped- having beds of Stones with Clay
between- also Blue Lias.-

-large Stones - called Girdles.- Lias Clay bituminous near

Axminster - Galena occurs in it but Chert is rare- Iron Pyrites

55

or Sulphuret of Iron - abundant- also Organic Remains &c Animals
with Verterba numberable.- Two Genera - like Crocodile or Lizards

found in it. as well as Turtle and Crabs.

Fossils in Clay Iron Stone at Whitby - and Wood mineralized by Iron.-

Lias forms broad and level Plains and produces a cold Soil - but is

good for Woods.

Lower division of Oolites.- Above the Lias is a green Sandy Marl-
over which is the Sandy Oolite - mixture of Iron gives it a bluish
|

Cast- the hardest portions are blue in the interior-

Upper division - 9 beds. lower resting on Fullers Earth or Blue
Yellow Clay [20] Stonesfield and Oxford Clay separate the middle

from each other.

Great Oolite - calcareous- a fine Free Stone procured- Henry
the qh Chapel built of Bath Oolite. the Colour is generally of
a Yellow cast- beds of a laminated structure above the Oolite is
the Bradford Clay containing Organic Remains.

Stonesfield Slate is more remarkable for them than any other -
Animals of the Lizard kind 40 feet long and 5 feet high have been
found.

Forest Marble - with layers of Sand - beds thin and Slaty of a
grey colour composed of Shells cemented by Clay but externally

brown

Cornbrash - is of a greyish blue Colour but brown externally -
from the red Soil- it is the bed of Mineral Springs- fragments
of Fossil Wood are found in it.-

The great Oolite forms a flat Table Land succeeded by a gentle
Slope formed by Fullers Earth- the inferior oolite forms a second

Terrace.-

Middle Division. Oxford of Fen Clay beds of great thickness and
of a dark Colour- Argillaceous Species mixed with Calcareous and
bituminous matter- Iron Pyrites occur and Gypsum which is a

Sulphate of Lime

[21] Coral Rag and Pisolite - beds of 1 to 200 feet thick of
Calcareous or free Stone Beds- it is of a light Colour but is not
equal to Portland Stone for durability - it moulders quick away.

Sandy beds lie under Oxford Clay. Iron abundant - Shells numerous-

Upper division of Oolite - Kimmeridge Clay blue slaty or highly
bituminous- dark brown Colour- contains no Pyrites - its smell
is bituminous - but not Sulphureous.

Portland Oolite - Limestone beds containing Chert- Remains of
Fish and Madrepores found-

Purbeck bed - Argillaceous Limestone consisting chiefly of Shells
of calcareous Cement- Turtle have been found in it- the Soil is

a Marly Clay.

th
Lecture 10 January 6 1826

Lying above the Oolite is the Iron Sand and Weald Clay &c- Iron
Sand - in which Sand and Sand Stone prevail - is Siliceous - contains
Oxide of Iron - fossil Wood - Wood Coal - Shells &c- the Soil is

of a Brownish Red.-

thickness of the Beds is about 500 feet- Hills of no great
Elevation produces Hops in Kent.-

Weald Clay or Weald of Kent. a dark tenacious Clay - contains
Shells- sometimes called Petworth Marble. Specks of Mica and
Selenite are found-

in is frequently washed away - as in the Isle of Wight - where it

is Said to run out. (cold Soil)

[22] Green Sand so called from the colour - resembles Iron Sand.
consists of Sand and Sandstones cemented by a calcareous Matter-

it contains green Earth which is also found in different Sandstones-
also beds of Chert - Calchedony - Conatens Rock with green Rocks -
Iron Pyrites and Crystals of Quartz- in the Quarries of Blackdown

150 Species of Organic Remains were found.

57

58

Chalk Marl - Contains Argillaceous Matter and Sand- distinguished
from Chalk in being more laminated - also more gritty.- has regular
Nodules of Iron Pyrites &c Fragments of Bones were found in it

at Folkstone- thickness 3 or 400 feet.-

Chalk uppermost of the Secondary Strata is nearly white- earthy -
meagre and adheres to the Tongue, and Soils the Fingers - dull &c.-
Yellowish Colour sometimes hard.-

The lower bed is in green Grains- middle Coarse that contains Horn
Stone.

Upper is White having Flint Nodules (which is a remarkable feature)
- Veins of Flint are rare. Organic Remains are numerous - and
important - Fish and Univalves &c Sea Eggs - Star Fish - only one
of Madrepores

The Hills are [two words are indecipherable] one Side and Steep on
the other - highest Elevation 1000 feet.

Rivers seldom rise in Chalk.-

Chalk rendered red with Iron - when not much covered with Soil it
is very unproductive

Chalk is unknown in America but common in England.-

[23] All the Fossil Remains are filled with the Matter envelloping
them- Genera the same Species characteristic of Beds.- Suites
above Chalk different.

Plastic Clay covers the bed of Chalk.-

Tertiary Formation -

Sand Clay and Marl consolidated with Limestone- Remains not
mineralized - but appear recent - are sometimes confounded with
Alluvial deposits- (Paris formations London and Isle of Wight-)
deposits in Basins of Chalk. Plastic Clay over the debris of the
Chalk beds- Sand Clay and Pebble Beds.- lowest Beds unctuous and
tenaceous Sands of different Colours - called variegated Sand.-
Clays laminated sometimes argillaceous Rocks &c- Coal of
Vegetable Origin- Pyrites and Tabular Iron Stone found at Isle

of Wight- Amber found on the Coast of Yorkshire- Organic Remains

in Plastic Clay- has a flat surface.

London Clay Argillaceous deposit bluish or blackish Clay- Some
Strata effervesse- Septaria washed out of it which is Characteristic
of the London Clay- Fossils Copal and Amber found- Organic Remains
numerous - Crocadiles - Fish and Coals few of the Genera of recent
Shells wanting some resemble those found in the Indian Seas and
Warm Climates.- Contains portions of Fossil Wood (Isle of Sheppy)
quantity of Seeds and Fruit found - upwards of 700 Specimens (not
known) thickness [24] 700 feet - (Richmond Hill London Clay) It
chokes the Plough and rolls before it unlike other Clay.-

The Beach or bank when dried is cracked resembling the Giants
Causeway. the Beds above the London Clay contain Shells such as

are found in the neighbouring Waters

Lower fresh Water Formation (Isle of White)

2 Coase Limestone with Sandstone - Siliceous

1 Limestone with Gypsum and Bones

Lower Bed very Sandy - containing Shells Petrifactions - Siliceous
Matter - Amber - Chalcedony and quartz.-

Gypsum Formation - Gypsum and Marl with a multitude of Bones &c-

it is white or Yellowish Limestone - and is separated from the Marine

Formation by the Green Marl-

Upper Marine Formation - is a Series of thick Beds of Sand and
Sandstone- the Sand with Angular particles of quartz &c Sandstone

contains few Organic Remains.-
The Upper or great fresh Water Formation

the newest (Paris Basin) layers of Sand Clay and Mill Stone in
thick Beds- above is layer of Limestone impregnated with quartz-

it is of a Yellowish White Colour contains Flint and Horn Stone
with cylindrical Cavities.- it is covered by alluvial and contains
fresh water Shells [25] which are thin and friable (Hedon Hill Isle
of Wight) -

59

60

Remarks - great proportion of Arenaceous Beds - Silica forms the

greater part of Flint - it is found pure in Rock Crystal

Granites owe their construction to crystallization- quartz Rock
resembling Gneiss- difficult to find where the Crystalline
process ends and where the Fragmatic begins

Sandstones are less aggregated as we ascend from the lower to the

newer formations.

Lecture ci January re ha 1826
Volcanic Rocks - determined by the absence of Quartz - or more
by the Chemical than the Geological Character.-
(of a Black Colour - shining - with Cells-
Cordilleras 2500 Leagues. (Humboldt)
Augites found in Limestones-
Great Masses of Basalt found in primitive and Transition Formations
- some are Volcanic-
Trachite (signifying rough) like Felspar Colour Grey - approaching
to black - fracture earthy - friable - disintegrates easily-
Pumice - shining Horneblend and Mica-
Iron Glance Specula of Iron occurs in Cavities and Veins-
It constitutes all the loftiest Summits [26] of the Cordilleras-
Obsidian - like black Glass- translucent at the Edges- it occurs
in Beds and Streams in Volcanic Tracts.
Pitch Stone - like broken Resin - is feebly translucent at the
Edges.-
Pearl Stone - resembles Pearl- Is of a black grey and red Colour-
Pumice - Grey and white - vessicular - vitrious feels sharp and
Meagre - floats on Water-
Pumice - porous & used for polishing Wood &c - like froth of the
Glass Pots - cellular-
Trachite - Granite altered by Fire - Pumice may be it.-
Clink Stones are common in Basalt.- Slaty with a cross fracture

- (Lake Huron la cloche)

Tuffa - having a Base with Fragments containing Opal and Shells.
(Jameson)

Conglomerates cover immense Surfaces - friable like Tuffa - or hard
like SandStone

Pumice - Rocks of Various kinds altered by Fire.-

Basalt contains Augite which is a lighter colour than Horneblende
- Greyish or greenish Black - fracture even - pale Streak. Two
kinds - Felspar and Horneblende and Felspar and Augite - Giants
Causeway - and Staffa.-

[27] It traverses Limestone and Sandstone of the Coal Measures-
Basalt is Amygdaloidal-

Basalt and Green Stone Lava - nearly the same softened by Heat -
Scoria vesicular

Wherever Trachites are abundant - Lava is rare.-

Modern Volcanic &c- Lava - Volcanic ashes &c-

Compact Lava - grey lustre - Scratches with the knife.-

Vessicular Lava - upper part of the Stream-

Spumy Lava - Volcanic Glass-

Rocks formed by Hot Springs - in Italy they actually put the Mould
into the Springs and so obtain a perfect Stone of which a great
part of Rome is built-

Torrents of Mud - form Stones - resembling Trachite- Water thrown
up by Gass-

Crystals &c - thrown up with it-

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Lieutenant George Back's Notebook is on permanent loan by J.
Pares, Esq. to the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge,
England. It is catalogued as SPRI Ms. 395/1 in the Institute's
Archives. The Notebook was shown to me in the spring of 1970 by
Dr. Alan Cooke, then Archivist of the Institute. I am very grateful
to Dr. Cooke and Mr. Clive S. Holland, the present Archivist, for
their scholarly assistance and enthusiastic hospitality while
working in Cambridge. The Notebook is published with the kind
permission of Mr. John Pares, owner of the Notebook, and the

Director of the Scott Polar Research Institute.

61

238195 Azepuodes JO uUoOTJ00s TeotTboTosb s,yoeq :y eanbty

293213S UNTANTIY OF SeATQTWTAg JO UOTI0®S TeOTboTOSseb s,yoeq :€ aanbt 4

N

Figure 5:

Back's geological section of Tertiary strata

63

SYLLOGEUS TITLES PUBLISHED TO DATE

No.

No.

No.

No.

No.

No.

if

8

McAllister, Don. E., Anton B. Leere, and Satya P. Sharma (1972)
A BATCH PROCESS COMPUTER INFORMATION RETRIEVAL AND CATALOGUING
SYSTEM IN THE FISH COLLECTION, NATIONAL MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCES

Shchepanek, M.J. (1973)
BOTANICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE OTISH MOUNTAINS, QUEBEC

Shih, Chang-tai (1973)

A PRELIMINARY SURVEY OF INVERTEBRATE ZOOLOGISTS AND THEIR PRESENT
ACTIVITIES IN CANADA/REPERTOIRE PROVISOIRE DES ZOOLOGISTES DES
INVERTEBRES ET DES TRAVAUX QU'ILS POURSUIVENT PRESENTEMENT AU
CANADA

Faber, Daniel J., Ed., (1974)
A HIGH SCHOOL FIELD AND LABORATORY STUDY OF LAC LAPECHE IN
GATINEAU PARK, QUEBEC, DURING MARCH, 1972

Gorham, Stanley W., and Don. E. McAllister (1974)
THE SHORTNOSE STURGHON, Acipenser brevirostrum, IN THE SAINT JOHN
RIVER, NEW BRUNSWICK, CANADA, A RARE AND POSSIBLY ENDANGERED SPECIES

Vladykov, Vadim D., and Herratt March (1975)

DISTRIBUTION OF LEPOCEPHALI OF THE TWO SPECIES OF Anguilla IN THE
WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC, BASED ON COLLECTIONS MADE BETWEEN 19338
AND 1968

Legendre, Vianney, J.G. Hunter, and Don. E. McAllister (1975)
FRENCH, ENGLISH AND SCIENTIFIC NAMES OF MARINE FISHES OF ARCTIC
CANADA/NOMS FRANCAIS, ANGLAIS ET SCIENTIFIQUES DES POISSONS MARINS
DE L'ARTICQUE CANADIEN

McAllister, Don. E. (1975)
FISH COLLECTIONS FROM THE OTISH MOUNTAIN REGION, CENTRAL QUEBEC,
CANADA

No.

No.

No.

No.

No.

No.

No.

No.

No.

10

tab

12

13

14

U5

16

iby)

Tynen, Michael J. (1975)
A CHECKLIST AND BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE NORTH AMERICAN ENCHYTRAEIDAE
(ANNELIDA: OLIGOCHAETA)

Jarzen, David (1976)
PALYNOLOGICAL RESEARCH AT THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCES,
OTTAWA "TODAY AND TOMORROW"

Chengalath, R. (1977)
A LIST OF ROTIFERA RECORDED FROM CANADA WITH SYNONYMS

The KTEC Group (1977)
CRETACEOUS — TERTIARY EXTINCTIONS AND POSSIBLE TERRESTRIAL AND
EXTRATERRESTRIAL CAUSES

Jarzen, David M. (1977)
THE POLLEN AND SPORE REFERENCE COLLECTION AT THE NATIONAL MUSEUMS
OF CANADA

Argus, George W. and David J. White (1977)
THE RARE VASCULAR PLANTS OF ONTARIO/LES PLANTES VASCULAIRES RARES
DE L'ONTARIO

Harrington, C.R. (1978)
QUARTERNARY VERTEBRATE FAUNAS OF CANADA AND ALASKA IN A SUGGESTED
CHRONOLOGICAL SEQUENCE

Jarzen, David M. and Gregory J. Whalen (1978)
CATALOGUE OF THE POLLEN AND SPORE EXCHANGE COLLECTIONS, NATIONAL
MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCES

Argus, George W. and David J. White (1978)
THE RARE VASCULAR PLANTS OF ALBERTA/LES PLANTES VASCULAIRES RARES
DE L'ALBERTA

No.

No.

No.

No.

18

19

20

PAL

Maher, Robert V., David J. White, George W. Argus and Paul A. Keddy

THE RARE VASCULAR PLANTS OF NOVA SCOTIA/LES PLANTES VASCULAIRES
RARES DE LA NOUVELLE-ECOSSE

Boullard, Bernard (In press) [1979]
CONSIDERATIONS SUR LA SYMBIOSE FONGIQUE CHEZ LES PTERIDOPHYTES

Maher, Robert V. & George W. Argus (In press) [1979]
THE RARE VASCULAR PLANTS OF SASKATCHEWAN/LES PLANTES VASCULAIRES
RARES DE LA SASKATCHEWAN

Brunton, D.F. (In press) [1979]
THE VASCULAR PLANT COLLECTIONS OF JOHN MACOUN IN ALGONQUIN
PROVINCIAL PARK, ONTARIO

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