Catalogue description 'Geological Rambles around Montreal and its Vicinity'

Manuscript volume entitled 'Geological Rambles around Montreal and its Vicinity. With an account of the history, physical geography and geology of the island. Illustrated with a coloured geological map and numerous wood engravings, by Sir George Duncan Gibb, Bart, MA, MD, LLD, FGS, London 1868'.

According to the letter of transmission (pasted into the front of the volume) and the preface, Gibb's intention was for the work to be published but it was never financially viable to do so. The volume is set out as if it were a published work, with chapters and 'woodcut' illustrations (mostly of fossils) which are in fact original ink drawings by Gibb. The descriptions contained in the volume were compiled between 1851-1853 (although at least one of the illustrations is dated 1855), before the Victoria Bridge and the Grand Trunk Railway were constructed, and prior to the area being covered by the Geological Survey of Canada.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
History of Montreal
Physical Geography of Montreal
Geology of Montreal
Chapter 1 - To Mount Royal to examine the Trap of which it is composed
Chapter 2 - To Côte-des-Neiges and McGill College to examine the Leda clay and Trap Dykes
Chapter 3 - To Pampinean Road, to examine a broad band of intercalated trap and Ice grooves
Chapter 4 - To Cadiuex Village to see Tertiary deposits in which were found bones of whales and seals
Chapter 5 - To the Mile End quarries to see the limestones at the base of the Trenton formation
Chapter 6 - To the Second Mile End quarries and La Chapelles Bridge, to examine the Chazy limestone
Chapter 7 - To the Tanneries of St Henri and Lac St Pierre to see the Alluvial deposits
Chapter 8 - To Côte St Michel, to explain Gibb's Cavern
Chapter 9 - To Mount Royal to examine a Fissure in the Limestone Rock
Chapter 10 - To Bouchette's Cavern, Kildare in the Laurentian limestones
Chapter 11 - To St Anne's to examine the Potsdam sandstone
Chapter 12 - To Beauharnois to examine the various beds of Foot-tracks
Chapter 13 - To Pointe Cavagnol, Vaudreiul, to examine the locality of the broadest Protichnites or Foot-tracks
Chapter 14 - To Lachute, Riviere du Nord, to examine the Track bed and its relations
Chapter 15 - To Mont Calvaire, Lake of Two Mountains to examine the gneiss of which it is composed; and also sand hills
Chapter 16 - To the Trap Mountain of Rigaud on the Ottawa River, with a multitude of small rounded boulders of trap on its summit
Chapter 17 - To Montarville, to see the Boucherville Mountain and its two little crater lakes
Chapter 18 - To Mount Rouville, otherwise called Chambly or Beloeil Mountain, and its crater lake
Chapter 19 - To Rougemont, composed of Dolerite Trap
Chapter 20 - To Yamaska Mountain, to see micaceous trachyte and diorite of which it is composed
Chapter 21 - To Monnoir to visit Mount Johnson, formed of feldspathic diorite
Chapter 22 - To Lachine and Caughnawaga [Kahnawake], to see multitudes of Boulders, Trap dykes, and limestones of the Chazy formation
Chapter 23 - To Pointe Claire to examine the quarries of limestone and marble
Chapter 24 - To Isle Bizard and White Horse Rapids to see two outliers of Dolomite conglomerate of the Upper Silurian Division
Chapter 25 - To the Village and Seigniory of Terrebonne to examine the Upper Laurentian Rocks
Chapter 26 - To St Helen's Island to examine the Dolomitic Conglomerate and its relations
Chapter 27 - To the Fort and Basin of Chambly on the River Richelieu
Chapter 28 - To the Pinnacle Mountain of St Armand formed of the Quebec group of rocks
Chapter 29 - To Varennes to see the Mineral Springs arising from the Utica Shales
Chapter 30 - To Grenville on the Ottawa River, to examine the serpentine and other Eozoic rocks
Chapter 31 - To Chatham on the Ottawa to see the beds of syenite and enormous accumulation of boulders
Chapter 32 - To Perth, to examine the Potsdam beds, containing Climactichnites associated with Protichnites

Ref: LDGSL/26

George Duncan Gibb was born in Montreal, Canada, on 25 December 1821. He studied medicine at McGill University and graduated in 1846, being appointed immediately afterwards as Surgeon to the Canadian Militia. He moved to Dublin to pursue his studies, becoming a Licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. In 1853, Gibb moved to London being first Physician at St Pancras General Dispensary which he left to take up the post of Assistant Physician to the Westminster Hospital in 1863.

Throughout his stay in London, Gibb added various qualifications to his name, FGS (1855), MRCP (1859), LLD (1864 from Quebec) and most notably 'Sir' which was attached to a supposed baronetcy - which he adopted after research into his family history discovered it to be 'vacant'.

Gibb wrote numerous publications on laryngology, his family history, unusual meteorology and Canadian geology. He died on 16 February 1876 from lung disease.