Abstract
BY the death of Mr. Alexander Murray, Canadian geology has lost one of its veteran pioneers. This estimable man belonged to a good Perthshire family, and was born at his father's estate of Dollerie in 1811. He went into the navy at the age of fourteen, served in the Mediterranean and was present at the battle of Navarino, was subsequently employed in the West Indies, Halifax, and other stations, and finally quitted the service in 1837. There being no prospect of his advancement in the pursuit of war, he turned his attention to the arts of peace, went to Canada, and bought land there with the view of settling as a farmer. During the rebellion which broke out soon after his emigration he had once more an opportunity of seeing active service. But he had not yet found the proper field for the exercise of his powers. His attempts at farming failed, and his prospects were rather blank, when at last he made the acquaintance of Mr. W. E. Logan, then starting the Geological Survey of Canada. He had had no training in science of any kind, but the mode of life offered by the Survey seemed just what he longed for, and he gladly accepted the proposal that he should join the staff. Before actually beginning his new duties he resolved to do what he could to qualify himself for them. He returned to this country, studied geology theoretically at Edinburgh, and afterwards practically in Wales. In 1843 he went back to Canada and at once began work, remaining at his post for twenty years. He was one of the first and ablest of the stratigraphers with whom Logan traced out the general geological structure of the Dominion. His explorations extended over most of the settled parts and over a large area of forest-land in Western Canada, where he laid down the main lines of structure and the areas of distribution of the rocks. He likewise examined parts of Gaspé and other tracts in the eastern portion of the Dominion. But his most important labours were devoted to the investigation of Newfoundland, of the Geological Survey of which he had charge from 1863 to 1883. From 1866 onwards he prepared an Annual Report of the progress of his work in that colony. These Reports collected by him, and republished as a volume in 1881, contain a summary of all that is known regarding the geological structure of Newfoundland, and will remain as a lasting monument of Mr. Murray's skill as a strati-graphical geologist, and of the courage, patience, aad tact with which he overcame all physical and political difficulties. One of his last labours was the completion and publication of a geological map of the whole of Newfoundland—a work at once beautiful in execution and of the first importance in regard to the industrial growth of the colony. Very few of our colonies yet possess complete geological maps, and hardly ever are they so largely the work of one man as this one. New-foundlraid has never adequately recognised how much it stands indebted to Mr. Murray for his share in laying the foundation on which its future development must rest.
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Alexander Murray, C.M.G. . Nature 31, 318 (1885). https://doi.org/10.1038/031318a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/031318a0