Papers of Sir George Duncan Gibb, comprising:

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 transmissal (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 is 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 enromous accumulation of boulders

Chapter 32 - To Perth, to examine the Potsdam beds, containing Climactichnites associated with Protichnites