William Edmond Logan - A Geological Pioneer

A geologist with the then Ordnance Geological Survey (now the British Geological Survey) from its inception in 1835 and a contemporary of Henry de la Beche, William Edmond Logan went on the become the first Director of the Geological Survey of Canada which was formed in 1842. He remained in that post until 1869 when he was succeeded by another pioneer of the British Geological Survey, Alfred Richard Cecil Selwyn. 

 

William Edmond Logan (20 April 1798 - 22 June 1875)

Alfred Richard Cecil Selwyn
(20 July 1824 - 19 October 1902)

Henry Thomas De la Beche 
(10 February 1796 - 13 April 1855) 

From the British Geological Survey Library in Edinburgh, the following images show a couple of early examples of the Exploration Geologique du Canada: Rapport de Progrès or the Geological Survey of Canada: Report of Progress, the first published in 1846 with the progress from the year 1844. 

Exploration Geologique du Canada: Rapport de Progrès 

In a paper presented to the 'History of the Book in Canada’ Open Conference in May 2001: 

‘I wish these annual reports were at the devil’: William E. Logan and the publications of the Geological Survey of Canada,  Brian Shipley discusses the process undertaken by Logan in producing these Reports of Progress, revealing the objections Logan had in this approach to documenting the work of the Survey. 

Shipley's thesis; 'From Field to Fact: William E. Logan and the Geological Survey of Canada' is also available to download from Dalhousie University Library. 

A notable and honoured man, Logan is the subject of a Dinner Address made by J.M. Harrison at the Annual Dinner of the Geological Association of Canada on the 7^th June 1963, which makes for an entertaining and informative read. 

Harrison, J.M. and Hall, E. (1963) Dinner Address: "William Edmond Logan". Proceedings of the Geological Association of Canada. Vol 15.  

                 

There are many routes for further exploration of the life and work of this celebrated Geologist, Written in Stone : William E. Logan and the Geological Survey of Canada is just one of them.

Posted by : Emma Illingworth

Fossil fish from the British Geological Survey collections

BGS Image ID: P549484

Thrissops, a ray-finned fish from the Jurassic. Specimen GSM85802.

Thrissops was a member of the more advanced ray-finned fish, an early teleost. It lived in the seas of many places in Europe and fossils have been found in Jurassic and Cretaceous sediments of England, France and Germany. There may be one group of living fish related to Thrissops, the freshwater 'bony tongue' such as the pirarucu which lives in the rivers of South America. Thrissops grew up to about 60 cm. in length and once swam in the late Jurassic seas of southern England, about 145 million years ago. Although not seen in the specimen illustrated, Thrissops had a large symmetrical tail which enabled the fish to swim rapidly. It had small pelvic fins, but long anal fins, which were used to stabilise it. The pectoral fins were large as can be seen in the photograph. Fish are cold-blooded vertebrates with a braincase, fins for swimming and gills to take oxygen from the water (although some also have lungs). They therefore differ from other aquatic creatures like invertebrate molluscs or crabs; amphibians and reptiles, which have lungs and limbs rather than gills and fins; and whales and dolphins which are warm-blooded mammals. Fish are the first vertebrates, having evolved during the early Cambrian over 500 million years ago.

BGS Image ID: P549485

Macropoma, a coelocanth from the late Cretaceous. Specimen GSM109036.

Lobe-finned fish like coelocanths are occasionally found in the late Cretaceous (about 70 million years old) Chalk of Britain and in eastern Europe. However, coelocanths then seemed to disappear from the fossil record, and it was assumed that they had become extinct. However, in 1938 a living representative was found and they have since been found living off the Comoro Islands, Indian Ocean, and off Indonesia. Macropoma grew to about half a metre long. It had a deep body and a bulbous, 3-lobed tail. Its teeth are confined to the very front of the jaw. It had two dorsal fins, a pair of pectoral fins on its side and pelvic fins mid-way along on the underside of the body. Macropoma scales are very thin, ovoid plates of fibrous bone, enamelled on the outer surface. Fish are cold-blooded vertebrates with a braincase, fins for swimming and gills to take oxygen from the water (although some also have lungs). They therefore differ from other aquatic creatures like invertebrate molluscs or crabs; amphibians and reptiles, which have lungs and limbs rather than gills and fins; and whales and dolphins which are warm-blooded mammals. Fish are the first vertebrates, having evolved during the early Cambrian over 500 million years ago.

BGS Image ID: P521130

A fossil specimen of Cephalaspis lyelli Agassiz. A fossil fish. (Vertebrata, Pisces.) Glammis, Perthshire, Scotland.

 Cephalaspis lyelli is a jawless fish; a member of the Ostracoderms which were armoured with bony plates and scales. British Geological Survey Biostratigraphy Collection number GSM 5107. Cast of Lectotype. They occurred mainly in fresh and brackish water and were most abundant in the Lower Old Red Sandstone Devonian. Cephalaspis is one of the best known ostracoderms with the head covered by a rigid bony shield and the rest of the body by elongated scales. A pair of fins lie just behind the head shield which has the depressed shape of a bottom dweller. Cephalaspis is thought to have lived in fresh-water pools or streams feeding on organic material filtered in the gill pouches from bottom sediments. Figd. Agassig, Rech, Poiss. Foss. 2. 1838, pl. 1, fig.2, and Lankester, Mon. Pal. Soc. 1868, O.R.S. Fishes. Pl. VIII, fig. 1, & Stensio, Ceph. Great Britain 1932 B.M.(N.H.) pub. Text fig. 40, p.121. Cited Lankester, as before, p 44, and Stensio as before .

BGS Image ID: P521200

A fossil specimen of Osteolepis macrolepidotus Agassiz. A fossil fish. (Vertebrata, Pisces.) Quarry below High Water Mark near Verron, Bay of Skaill, Orkney, Scotland.

Osteolepis macrolepidotus is a crossopterygian fish from the Old Red Sandstone (Devonian). British Geological Survey Biostratigraphy Collection number GSE 12832. The lobe-finned fish distinguised by paired fins supported by scale-covered fleshy lobes and axial bony skeleton, and nostrils in the upper mouth include two groups, the lungfish such as Dipterus and the crossopterygians such as Osteolepis and Holoptychius. Crossopterygians were noted for their sharp pointed grasping teeth with vertically-grooved surface giving a labyrinthodont form well suited to a voracious predator such as Osteolepis. The evolution of the lobe-finned fish was one of the most important steps in the evolution of the vertebrates. Some features of Osteolepis are found in the labyrinthodont amphibians such as the ichthyostegids.

Posted by Bob McIntosh.

Origins of the British Geological Survey - a poster

Link to download full sized PDF file

The British Geological Survey has had a long history. Its origin was as part of the Ordnance Survey. It became a separate geological organization by 'Act of Parliament' in 1845 called the Geological Survey of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1965 it became a component institute of Natural Environment Research Council and the survey changed its name to Institute of Geological Sciences. There was a great expansion, it incorporated the Overseas Geological Survey which had it origins in the earlier Imperial Institute, also the units covering seismology and geomagnetism, the latter descended from the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. In 1984 the survey changed its name to the current British Geological Survey. In 2013 the the ownership and governance model is again under review.

The poster was created for a BGS Open Day.

Bob McIntosh

Joseph Beete Jukes M.A., F.R.S.

BGS image ID:  P505852

Joseph Beete Jukes 1811-1869. Born at Summerhill, near Birmingham. Studied under Sedgwick. Worked in Newfoundland and on H.M. Ship 'Fly' surveying the coast of Australia and New Guinea. Joined the Geological Survey of Great Britain and Ireland in 1846 and by 1850 was appointed to the post of Director of Geological Survey Ireland.

More details can be found in Joseph Beete Jukes page in the new biographical resource: Pioneers of the British Geological Survey. Browse the 'Pioneers'

BGS image ID:  P575755

Bob McIntosh

The Carrington event, the largest magnetic storm on record. August 27th to September 7th, 1859

BGS Magnetogram image ID 188878

The Carrington event - the largest magnetic storm on record. August 27th to September 7th, 1859. Recorded at Greenwich Observatory, London.

The event was responsible for a great auroral storm. The following is an eyewitness account from a woman on Sullivan's Island, Carolina and reported in the Charleston Mercury:

“The eastern sky appeared of a blood red color. It seemed brightest exactly in the east, as though the full moon, or rather the sun, were about to rise. It extended almost to the zenith. The whole island was illuminated. The sea reflected the phenomenon, and no one could look at it without thinking of the passage in the Bible which says, ‘the sea was turned to blood.’ The shells on the beach, reflecting light, resembled coals of fire.”

BGS has scanned its full collection of 300,000 magnetograms. Full resolution images can be found at http://www.bgs.ac.uk/data/magnetograms/

Bob McIntosh

Trenham Reeks

BGS image: P575731

What could be more fitting than to start this new blog with a portrait of Trenham Reeks. His duties in the very early Survey covered the full scope of this blog, the material and documentary collections. He was born in 1823, appointed Assistant Curator of the Museum of Economic Geology in 1839 and Curator and Librarian in 1851. He died on 5 May 1879. An obituary in Nature described,  

'the little, rather dingy room in which for well nigh thirty years, he has sat amidst blue-books, calendars, mineralogical specimens, and a rather orderly chaos of miscellaneous objects.' 

This sounds at odds with the magnificently ordered Museum of Practical Geology, a picture of which will follow in a later post.

Bob McIntosh