Project Description
Geologist Biography
Sir William Logan, a native son, was the first director of the Geological Survey of Canada and was responsible for much of the initial geological mapping of eastern Canada in the period prior to and immediately following Confederation. It is a profound testament to Logan’s remarkable energies, passion, and evident skills in the fledgling science of geology that he became the man destined to forge both a new institution for, and new scientific understanding of, his beloved Canada.
William Edmond Logan was born on the 20th of April 1798 in Montreal, the 3rd son of a Scottish immigrant baker, William, and his wife Janet Edmond.
His early education was in Montreal until the age of 16. Evidently the family was sufficiently prosperous to send William and his older brother off to Scotland to finish high school.
In 1816 he enrolled in medical school at Edinburgh University, but left to assist with his uncle’s mining interests. By necessity and by interest Logan soon became familiar with the fundamentals of geology, as they were then understood.
In 1831, he moved to Swansea, Wales, where he was required to find a dependable supply of coal for copper smelters. Logan initiated geological field work in South Wales to ascertain the continuity of the coal seams and their relationship to the enclosing strata.
This self-taught man produced geological maps of such high quality that they were subsequently adopted in toto by the Geological Survey of Great Britain, following its founding in 1835.
Meanwhile back in Canada, the Natural History Society of Montreal in July of 1841 petitioned the first united parliament of Upper and Lower Canada to defray the costs of a geological survey of Canada. Logan’s name was put forward, and in the spring of 1842 his appointment was confirmed. That summer he set sail for Canada to begin, at the rather advanced age of 44, his true vocation.
In the beginning, William Logan and his assistant Alexander Murray, were the Survey. Mapping was initially done in Nova Scotia and the Gaspé region of Quebec (1843-45), then up the Ottawa River through to the north shore of Superior(1846).
From 1847 to 1851, while Murray continued to work in Ontario, Logan focused on the Eastern Townships of Quebec, and almost certainly traversed the hillsides and shoreline of Lake Memphremagog.
Although administrative duties increasingly impinged on his field work, the Eastern Townships of Quebec remained the geological canvas with which he was the most concerned.
Logan was short, wiry and physically indefatigable – ideal for the demands of geological field work.
As a younger man his hair and beard were a reddish brown, but portraits of Logan in his more senior years present a gentleman whose long locks have turned an elegant white (and, as has been often remarked, look disturbingly like Santa Claus).
He was a modest, self-effacing, rather shy man who disliked making public appearances, although he did so with grace and effectiveness. He was a life-long bachelor, as were his three other brothers, and as such he devoted his life to geology and the Survey.
His conscientious hard work was legendary, and his devotion to the task at hand was apparently inversely manifested in his personal appearance; which was commonly disheveled, particularly whilst in the field. He proved to be an excellent leader of men, being scrupulous and thorough but also sympathetic, forgiving and humane.
Scientifically he was cautious, preferring careful observation to speculation.
The magnitude, practical value and scientific integrity of the work accomplished by Logan and his Survey brought recognition and honours. Logan himself was made a member of the Royal Society in England, a member of the Legion d’honneur in France, and in 1856 he received a knighthood from Queen Victoria.
By the time Sir William Logan reached his retirement in 1869, his able leadership as director had lasted 27 years and had secured for the Survey both a solid reputation and an acknowledged lasting national role.
More importantly, it had secured for Canada a fundamental understanding of her bedrock and her resources.
Upon retirement Logan decided to spend his winters with his sister in Wales, but in the summers he returned to Canada to further his geological studies of the Eastern Townships. He was planning yet another field season, when in the early spring of 1875 his health sharply declined.
On June 22nd , at the age of 77 , Canada’s foremost pioneer geoscientist passed away. He is buried in Llechryd, Wales.
Geological Fieldwork:
click on map to see some of Sir Logan’s geological fieldwork
Geoscience Field Area → Ordovician Volcanics, Eastern Townships, Quebec