It is amazing how time flies by. Since September I’ve been meaning to visit the Canadian Museum of Nature’s Research and Collections Facility on Pink Road in Gatineau, Quebec (across the river from Ottawa) to look at a number of Sir William Logan’s specimens of Protichnites that were collected at Beauharnois, but I’ve not managed to make the time. Since September I’ve been meaning to visit the Redpath Museum at McGill University to look at a specimen that might be one of Logan’s, but again I’ve not managed to make the time. Since September, I’ve been meaning to follow up on a lead at the British Museum, but again I’ve not made the time. What can I say other than that it’s been a long, cold, bitter winter (possibly the coldest in twenty years).
My statement that a number of Logan’s specimens from Beauharnois are in the collection of the Canadian Museum of Nature will probably come as a surprise to most readers, as the specimens were thought to be missing. Mis-catalogued would be a more accurate description. That other of Logan’s specimens might be in the Redpath Museum and the British Museum, will also seem odd to certain readers. That I’ve not made time to drive to Gatineau or to Montreal over the past few months probably doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has spent this past winter in Eastern Ontario.
I had initially written this posting last September. I held off posting, waiting to include photos of the specimens from my visit to the Canadian Museum of Nature’s Research and Collections Facility. As it’s been six months, I’ve decided to report what I found, principally as a result of finding references to the specimens in the literature, and contacting various museums. I concentrated on the Canadian Museum of Nature, Logan Hall (the museum of the Geological Survey of Canada), the British Museum, and the Redpath Museum at McGill University. Surprisingly, most of Sir William Logan's ‘missing’ specimens could be in the collections of those museums.
Those that are interested in the trace fossil Protichnites will be aware that in 1851 and 1852 W. E. Logan took a number of specimens and casts to London, that lithographs of the six type trackways and an additional trackway appeared in Professor Owen’s 1852 paper, that a number of the type trackways were figured in Logan’s 1863 publication
Geology of Canada, that the original specimens disappeared from the records of the Geological Survey of Canada and have not been seen for over a century, and that within the past decade Dr. MacNaughton and Dr. Hagadorn reported on the plaster casts in the collection of the Amherst Museum, compared them with Logan’s specimens that were figured in the
Geology of Canada, and had duplicate casts made for the collection of the Geological Survey of Canada.
The original specimens that were thought to have gone missing are four specimens taken to London by Logan, the specimens for the six type trackways that appeared in Professor Owen’s 1852 paper, and the specimens from Beauharnois that were figured in the
Geology of Canada. (There is some overlap in those specimens. For example, (a) one of the slabs taken to London is Professor Owen’s No. 3– Protichnites latus, (b) Professor Owen’s No. 4 – Protichnites multinotatus – is figure 14 in Logan’s Geology of Canada.)
The Specimens Taken To London, England by Logan
In 1851 Logan took to London a small slab and the plaster cast of a large specimen that were found in a quarry near the mill on the left bank of the St. Louis River, village of Beauharnois, south side of the St. Lawrence River. Logan described the specimens as follows:
"The specimens consist of a small slab of sandstone, showing foot-prints on one of its surfaces, and a plaster cast from a longer surface of a similar description. The original is in the museum at Montreal connected with the Geological Survey of Canada... [and] weighs more than a ton. ... The most western portion of what was exposed is that removed to Montreal, like the plaster-cast, measuring 12 ½ feet in length."
In 1852 Logan took to London three slabs and 100 casts. One of the slabs was the original of the cast he had taken in 1851. The three slabs were described by Logan as follows:
First slab, 12 ½ feet in length, No. 7 of Prof. Owen (likely shown in Plate XIV.A of Owen’s 1852 paper), from the quarry on the bank of the St. Louis River, village of Beauharnois;
Second slab, 8 feet in length, No. 3 of Prof. Owen– Protichnites latus, from Henault’s Field, near Beauharnois;
Third slab, with two tracks and ripple-mark upon it, from the Island of St. Généviève in the St. Lawrence River, south of Montreal Island.
A footnote at the bottom of page 212 of Logan’s 1852 paper states that the second slab was “temporarily placed in the Society’s Museum by Mr. Logan.” This was the Museum of the Geological Society of London.
A Specimen at the British Museum, London, England
Interestingly, the British Museum may have one of Logan’s specimen. The British Museum provides a service where it provides photographs of specimens in its collection. In answer to an emailed enquiry that I made in late June asking “Do you have photographs of the specimens of Protichnites that Sir William Logan deposited with the Geological Society in about 1852?” I was informed in July that:
“Our Trace fossil collection was moved off site and I don’t often get the opportunity to visit the store. However, without visiting it I have managed to find an electronic record – a specimen of Protichnites from the Cambrian of Canada, presented to us in 1911 by the Geological Society.
1911 is when the fossil collections of the Geological Society were divided between the Natural History Museum, who received all the foreign and colonial specimens, and the Geological Survey who received the material from the British Isles. I will be visiting the store in September and plan to look for this specimen to see if there is any further labels or information that would link it to Sir William Logan.”
While this could be any specimen of Protichnites from Canada, I am hoping that the specimen at the British Museum could be one of Logan’s. My best guess for the specimen at the British Museum is that it is the missing second slab.
Specimens at the Peter Redpath Museum at McGill University, Montreal, Quebec
I suspect that everyone with an interest in geology that has visited Montreal has visited the Peter Redpath Museum at McGill University, if for no other reason than to look at the specimen of Climactichnites and Protichnites from Perth, Ontario that hangs in the stairwell of the museum. While in Montreal a year ago I attended at the museum to look at the specimen, and was not disappointed. It’s a gorgeous specimen.
And I suspect that those that have been reading the papers on Climactichnites and Protichnites that have been published in the last ten years are aware that the Peter Redpath museum has in its collection other specimens of Climactichnites and Protichnites from Perth, Ontario.
Interestingly, the Peter Redpath museum has additional specimens of Protichnites in its collection. In my review of the literature I came across the following reference:
"In the year 1851, Logan exhibited before the Geological Society of London, a small slab of sandstone showing some footprints, and a plaster cast from a larger surface of the similar description. The original, weighing upwards of a ton, is in the Museum at Montreal connected with the McGill University."
Hutchinson, H.N. (1910),
Extinct Monsters and Creatures of Other Days, Chapman & Hall, Ltd., London (New and Enlarged Edition).
At first I discounted that reference. However, as it is the most recent reference that I found to the largest missing specimen I followed up on it. In answer to an email that I sent to the Peter Redpath Museum I was informed that they had located two specimens in the basement and was provided with photographs of the specimens.
The first is a slab placed in a wood frame, roughly 24” x 5.5” x 43.5”.
The second is a larger piece that had been separated into four pieces due to its large size. From smallest to largest the pieces are:
18” x 13”, 41 lbs
28” x 26”, 220 lbs
34” x 31”, 325 lbs
43” x 24”, 175 lbs
The measurements are approximate, and the weight of each slab is taken from what is written across the back of the slab. The maximum length of the combined pieces is 123 inches (10 feet, 3 inches) with a total weight of 761 pounds.
The Acting Collections Manager who provided me with the above has told me that he can’t be certain that the larger slab is Protichnites, nor can he confirm that it is Sir William Logan’s specimen. He has promised to dig through the museum’s records to try and find a paper trail.
In the photographs of both slabs appear to be Protichnites. The larger one is too short and too light to be Logan’s 12 ½ feet specimen weighing upwards of a ton, but it is worth further investigation.
Sir William Logan’s Specimens of Protichnites from Beauharnois, Quebec -- Located in the Collection of the Geological Survey of Canada from 1875 to 1896
In his book the
Geology of Canada, Logan (1863) provided figures 12 - 17 showing various samples of Protichnites from Beauharnois. It is those specimens, plus a few from Professor Owen’s 1852 paper, that I believe are in the collection of the Canadian Museum of Nature.
My research revealed that in the period from at least 1875 to 1886 the Museum of the Survey, first in Montreal and later in Ottawa, had in its collection specimens of Protichnites septem-notatus, Protichnites octonotatus, Protichnites latus, Protichnites multi-notatus, Protichnites lineatus, and Protichnites alternans that were identified as being from Beauharnois, and that the specimens were still in the collection of the Survey as late as 1896. The four key references that I found, arranged chronologically from oldest to most recent are set out below.
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1.
Selwyn - 1875: The Specimens are in the GSC’s Museum in Montreal
First, in his Summary Report of Geological Investigations dated at Montreal on May 1, 1875, that appeared in the Geological Survey of Canada’s Report of Progress for 1874-75, Alfred R. C. Selwyn, Director, reported on Mr. Billings’ duties as Curator of the palaeontological branch of the museum. Selwyn commented on the improvements to the specimens exhibited at the Museum, including the addition of printed labels giving a descriptive notice of the specimen and meaning of its name. As part of his report Selwyn included the label for the Protichnites specimens, part of which follows:
“The tracks occur in the Potsdam Sandstone in several localities, but most abundantly near Beauharnois, about 20 miles from Montreal. There are six kinds of tracks which have been named by Professor Owen as follows:
Protichnites septem-notatus
Protichnites octonotatus,
Protichnites latus,
Protichnites multi-notatus,
Protichnites lineatus,
Protichnites alternans.
All of these are on exhibition in this Museum.”
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2.
Russell - 1877: The Specimens are in Montreal
Second, in a paper entitled “Concerning Foot-Prints” published in 1877, I. C. Russell mentioned:
“ Splendid specimens of Protichnites can be seen at Montreal, in the rooms of the Geological Survey of Canada, to whose director, Sir William Logan, we owe our knowledge of these interesting animals.”
(Russell, I. C. 1877, Concerning Foot-Prints, The American Naturalist, Volume XI, pages 406 -417 at 412)
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3.
Walcott’s Visit in 1886: The specimens are in the Museum in Ottawa
Third, in a book published in 1998 Dr. Yochelson of the Smithsonian provides a newspaper description of Charles Doolittle Walcott’s 1886 visit to Beauharnois where Walcott collected Protichnites specimens, which mentions that Walcott attended at the Museum in Ottawa to take
casts of specimens. The newspaper account is:
“Mr. Walcott, of the United States Geological Survey, is at present in this town, examining specimens of rock. He has found several turtle tracks in the sandstone, and some shells of that in the limestone. Although not so good as those taken by Sir William Logan, some years ago, he says they are very good of their kind. He has visited the Museum at Ottawa, from which he intends taking plaster casts of those placed there by Sir William Logan. These, together with his own, he will deposit in the National Museum at Washington.”
(Yochelson, Ellis Leon 1998, Charles Doolittle Walcott, Paleontologist, Kent University Press)
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4.
Ami’s Report of 1896 - The specimens are in the Geological Survey’s Collection
“POTSDAM SANDSTONE
I. Beauharnois, Que., County of Beauharnois (Geological Survey collection):–
1. Protichnites septem-notatus, Owen
2. Protichnites octonotatus, Owen
3. Protichnites latus, Owen
4. Protichnites multi-notatus, Owen
5. Protichnites lineatus, Owen
6. Protichnites alternans, Owen”
[Ami, Henry. H., 1896, Preliminary Lists of Organic Remains Occurring in the various Geological Formations Comprised in the South-West Quarter-Sheet of the Eastern Townships of the Province of Quebec, Geological Survey of Canada, Annual Report (New Series), Volume VII, No. 579, Part J, page 8J, Appendix to the Report by R. W. Ells entitled Report on a Portion of the Province of Quebec Comprised in the South-west Sheet of the “Eastern Townships” Map (Montreal Sheet)]
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I expect that most people with an interest in geology who have lived in Ottawa and visited the Canadian Museum of Nature are aware that Canada’s Museum of Nature traces its history back to the Geological Museum of Canada's Geological Survey that was started by Sir William Logan in Montreal. They will also be aware that after Confederation the Survey and its museum were moved to Ottawa from Montreal, and that the Victoria Museum (the original name of Canada’s Museum of Nature) was initially constructed to house the Geological Survey and its museum. Those same people will have visited the Geological Survey of Canada’s current museum, Logan Hall, at 601 Booth Street.
The Museum of Civilization’s web site lists the key dates in the history of Canada’s national museum, including the following:
1843 Following the GSC’s first field season, the Government asks Logan to establish a museum showcasing the Survey’s results. The first GSC museum opens on James Street in Montreal.
1852 Logan supplies casts of animal tracks for a display by London’s Geological Society, establishing the GSC’s interest in areas other than mineralogy. Logan also writes a paper recommending a permanent museum for the Province; the museum was expected to focus on geology but include some human history material.
1856 The Province of Canada passes an act which, among other things, enables the GSC to establish a Geological Museum open to the public.
1877 [By] Act of Parliament [the]... GSC’s official mandate is expanded to include the study of modern flora and fauna, as well as ancient human history, traditions, languages and current living conditions in undeveloped parts of the country.
1881 The GSC and its museum move to a former luxury hotel at the corner of Sussex and George streets in downtown Ottawa.
1910 The GSC and its museum occupy the new Victoria Memorial Museum Building (VMMB) on Metcalfe Street in Ottawa.
1959 The GSC leaves the VMMB for new facilities on Booth Street in Ottawa.
[ http://www.civilization.ca/about-us/about-the-museum/history-of-the-museum-of-civilization ]
Based on my research I believed that it was likely that the missing specimens of Protichnites could be in Ottawa, either in the collection of the Canadian Museum of Nature or in the collection kept for the Survey’s museum in Logan Hall. Based on that belief I sent emails to curators at both museums asking if they had specimens of Protichnites in their collections, and also sent an email to the person that I thought was responsible for the Survey’s type collection.
My enquiry to the Canadian Museum of Nature was answered by Margaret Currie, Collection Technician, who told me:
“ Regarding the trackways of Protichnites, we have one catalogued trackway in our database - a species called Protichnites multinotatus, which was collected in Quebec in the mid-1850's. We have a few other uncatalogued (and, I believe, unidentified) invertebrate trackways in the collection. But as far as I know, most of the specimens collected at that time are still
housed at the GSC.”
That was truly exciting news.
My enquiry sent to the person that I thought was curator of the GSC’s Logan Hall museum was answered by Michelle Coyne, Curator, Organic Materials Collections, Natural Resources Canada. (I later learned that she is the manager of the National Type Collection of Invertebrate and Plant Fossils as well as several other collections.) She told me that the material “is no longer here” but included valuable information from the GSC’s log books listing the missing specimens. Her reply shows that about 19 specimens of Protichnites and Diplichnites were missing, and fall within the range of specimens given the numbers 4700 to 4713 (including specimens 4703, a-c, 4707 a, b and 4708, a-d). Interestingly, her reply also settles whether Logan or Richardson collected a number of specimens from Beauharnois, identifies the Plesiotypes that are figured in Logan 1863, and identifies figure 15 from Logan 1863 as being from Papineauville, Quebec rather than Beauharnois.
My enquiry to the person that I thought was responsible for the type collection replied that I should be contacting Michelle Coyne.
In the course of the above my emails and the responses were copied to Dr. Robert MacNaughton, the Geological Survey of Canada’s expert on Protichnites. While I had not met Dr. MacNaughton, I had previously corresponded with him by email in my search for the quarry near Perth that was the first source for Climactichnites, and he has been good enough to correct my misidentification of a number of trace fossils, including one that I first thought was Climactichnites and he corrected to Protichnites. Dr. MacNaughton informed me that thanks to a bit of serendipity he had been able to identify the types based on material figured in an existing Canadian Museum of Nature publication and had passed this information on to Michelle Coyne's predecessor, but his other duties had prevented him from doing any further work at that time, or following up with the staff at Canadian Museum of Nature. While I am pleased that my efforts spurred him to communicate his identifications to Margaret Currie, it did ruin a good blog posting, and certainly took the excitement out of going to look at the specimens as they can be looked at in an online publication.
I've looked at Harington, Foster, Holmes & Currie's 2005 publication
Photographic catalogue of trackways in the Canadian Museum of Nature. This is available free on the internet from http://archive.org/. I can see why Dr. MacNaughton came to the conclusion that at least some of the GSC's missing type specimens are in the Museum of Nature's collection. The photograph of CMN 34843 jumps off the page as being one of Logan's. It is figure 14 in Logan’s Geology of Canada – Protichnites multinotatus (Owen). And I note that specimen CMN 4702 has the same number as one of the other specimens that Michelle Coyne told me has gone missing.
The
Photographic catalogue of trackways in the Canadian Museum of Nature misidentifies a number of specimens as Kouphichnium stating incorrectly that “Protichnites can be distinguished from Kouphichnium by the possession of a double median furrow.” A number of the specimens identified in the publication as Kouphichnium should have been identified as Protichnites and others as Diplichnites.
Michelle Coyne’s email suggests that there are nineteen missing specimens. Harington’s publication includes a specimen identified as P. Multinotatus and numerous specimens misidentified as Kouphichnium (where the locality is not known) that might be Logan’s missing specimens of Protichnites and Diplichnites. The following are worth a look:
Specimen Number Harington’s Identification My Identification
CMN 4702 Kouphichnium Diplichnites
CMN 34834 Kouphichnium Protichnites
CMN 34835 Kouphichnium Protichnites
CMN 34836 Kouphichnium Protichnites
CMN 34838 Kouphichnium Protichnites
CMN 34839 Kouphichnium Protichnites
CMN 34841 P. Multinotatus (Owen) Protichnites
CMN 34842 Kouphichnium - Diplichnites
“may actually be” Diplichnites
CMN 34843 Kouphichnium Logan’s specimen of Protichnites Multinotatus (Owen)
CMN 34844 Kouphichnium
“likely” Diplichnites Diplichnites
CMN 34848A Kouphichnium Protichnites
CMN 34848B Kouphichnium Protichnites
Those are the specimens that I had intended to look at and photograph at the Museum of Nature.
I had hoped to meet Dr. MacNaughton in Gatineau last fall to look at the specimens at the Canadian Museum of Nature’s Research and Collections Facility in Gatineau. That hasn’t happened, and I’m not sure if he has had the chance to look at the specimens. Perhaps others will now take the time to visit and examine the specimens.
Below I’ve provided, for ease of reference, both (a) the page from Logan’s 1863 publication Geology of Canada with
the trackways from Beauharnois, and (b) the six plates of the type
specimens from Professor Owen’s 1852 paper.
Christopher Brett
Perth, Ontario
