Memorial to Frederick James Alcock 1888-1972
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Memorial to Frederick James Alcock 1888-1972 DR. HUGH S. BOSTOCK 2150 West bourne Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada The death of Frederick James Alcock in his 84th year on the 18th of March 1972 in Ottawa, Ontario, is a great loss to his numerous friends whose interests embrace many walks of life. Fred was born on the 16th of November 1888, in Giiersville, Ontario, and is now buried in Meaford, Ontario, where he spent his boyhood days. In 1927, he married Marion Ethel McBain Freeman and is sur vived by her, their two children, Frances Anne and Richard Arthur, and six grandchildren. Fred received his early education in Meaford. From there he entered the University of Toronto, where he majored in geology and mineralogy, and where lie obtained his B.A. degree with first-class honours in 1912. For the next three years, lie studied at Yale University, specializing in structural geology and petrology. Ile received his Ph.D. in 1915. The following year was spent at the University of Wisconsin where he concentrated on Precambrian geology. From 1911 to 1947 he worked with the Geological Survey of Canada and was then appointed Chief Curator of the National Museum of Canada. He retained this position until his retirement in 1956. He began geological field work as a student assistant with the Geological Survey of Canada in 1911. From that season on he spent the summers with the Survey and was appointed to its staff in 1915. His first paper “On Two New C’rinoids from the Trenton Formation of Ontario” was printed in 1912. After three seasons as an assistant in various parts of Canada, including one with Dr. R. A. Daly in the interior of British Columbia, lie was given charge of a field party in 1914 to work north of Lake Athabasca on the Precambrian Shield in northern Alberta and Saskatchewan. This was the first of nine years in which he studied this region a region which spread in the later of these seasons to include part of northern Manitoba. At the time, prospecting was just beginning to yield results in far-flung parts of this huge area, but only the broadest generalities were known of its geology from a few river traverses that had penetrated its parts. Indians trapped in the area, but little information of its waterways was available even from the men of the Hudson’s Bay Company posts around it, so Fred’s work in these provinces was of a truly exploratory character. Indeed, in 1915 when lie traversed the lower part of the Churchill River 4 FREDERICK JAMES ALCOCK 5 (one o f the major streams o f North America) not even the Indians knew its course as it was taboo for them to follow it. His work in these years entailed exploration along waterways o f the Shield. It was often fraught with unexpected hazards that demanded alertness and sound judgment to avoid mishap. Fred’s parties operated without acci dent—evidence of his ability in planning, direction, and leadership. In his work, he developed a keen interest in history, geography, and allied fields related to the regions he traversed. From his notes, he drew up many papers on these side subjects, as well as his reports, memoirs, and maps of the geology. In 1921, Dr. Alcock was sent to the Gaspé Peninsula o f Quebec and from that year Gaspé, New Brunswick, and other parts of the Maritime Provinces became his main field, though he returned some seasons to the Shield. In 1923 he came back to study the Mandy and Flin Flon mines that had recently been developed in northern Manitoba. Hiis work and studies o f mineral deposits in Gaspé led him to write papers on mineral deposits, particularly o f lead and zinc in eastern Canada. These were steps to one of his outstanding works, “Zinc and Lead Deposits in Canada,” published in 1930. His last years in the Shield (1934 and 1935) were spent in northern Saskatchewan doing more detailed geology and systematic mapping than before. In 1935, his field work, which covered an area o f nearly 8,000 sq mi north o f Lake Athabasca, was notable for the plan he devised for its execution. Drainage maps plotted from oblique air photographs of the region had now become available and float planes were in vogue. With some experience from 1934, he made full use of these two new tools. His party included 32 men from whom he formed eight groups of four. These groups with their canoes and other equipment were airlifted to widely scattered lakes in the area. Throughout the season, Fred visited each group biweekly to super vise and supply them as they traversed along their allotted waterways mapping the geology for publication (1 in = 4 mi). At the same time on spare days, he attended to his own more detailed geological mapping and examination of mineral claims around Goldfields on the north shore o f Lake Athabaska where an important lode gold strike was being prospected. In this work, he discovered the presence of pitchblende that led to finding the Beaverlodge uranium mining camp at Uranium City, an important source o f this metal for Canada. After the 1935 season, Fred’s field was consistently in the Appalachian Region of Canada. In his first years (in the 1920s) in Gaspé Peninsula, he found and mapped an interesting area which included the Mount Albert ultrabasics and then extended his work to the country around Chaleur Bay and on southward into New Brunswick as the years went by. He also visited Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and the Magdalen Islands. This region of Paleozoic rocks with fossiliferous formations allowed him to do more explicit research in stratigraphy and structure than the Precambrian Shield had allowed. Though some legal land survey maps were available, for some years he still had to make his own base maps as he went along. In this region too, besides compiling geological reports, papers, and maps, he wrote papers on geographical subjects. His memoir on Chaleur Bay, published in 1936, was a great step forward in the knowledge of the region; it assembled in one clear, concise volume the geology of the large, surrounding area. As his field spread southward over New Brunswick on which 6 THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA he brought out a number of memoirs and papers of local interest, he acquired a mas sive knowledge o f the whole country. This enabled him to write an excellent summary o f the geology o f the entire Appalachian Region in Canada in his chapter in “The Economic Geology and Minerals o f Canada,” published in 1947. In 1948 he forecast the discovery of graptolites in the Oak Bay area o f New Brunswick where they were finally found in 1962. He compiled the first general geological maps o f the region, notably the “Geological Map of the Maritime Provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island,” published in 1949 (1 in = 12 mi). This map, on which he introduced a number of generalizations and correlations, still remains the authoritative guide to the geology of the region, despite almost complete coverage by one-mile work in recent years. Among his other achievements in this region was the major part he played in setting up the plan for gravity determinations in the Maritime Provinces. Of his geographical papers, “Across Gaspe,” published in the Geographical Review in 1924, is a good example. It gives an account of the birds, botany, and scenery encountered, and with his other similar papers did much to popularize the Appalachian Region of which little was known in other parts o f Canada and the United States. Another notable work of his was “A Century in the History of the Geological Survey of Canada,” published in 1947. When Fred left the Geological Survey in 1947 to take up his new position as head of the National Museum, it was a personal loss to the staff of the Survey. Actually, though, he had only moved along the hall, as both organizations were then in the same building and their staffs were closely associated. He was still as approachable as ever and never too busy to see any one o f us. His appointment to the National Museum gave it a substantial raise in morale as he was the first full-time curator and now it was an independent organization. His broad interests in its work and his tactful leadership, backed by the great respect everyone had for him, fitted him well for the position and enabled him to instill a new life into the museum. He set to work to put it on a modern basis and was responsible for its active postwar expansion into several fields. Though his tasks were now nearly all administrative and dealt primarily with the museum, he continued to publish works on geology and other subjects from time to time, even after he had retired in 1956. In summing up his work, Fred was an accurate, clear and easy writer. His publica tions included 38 geological maps and more than 150 reports and articles, mainly on geological subjects. He left a worthy record of contributions to the geology, mineral deposits, geography, and history of Canada. These works are evidence to his unusually broad perspective and wide interests. They were written when information on many of their subjects was scarce or non-existent and so have a value beyond that suggested by a mere listing. Fred’s natural, considerate regard for people, particularly youth, led him into many activities beyond the call of his normal employment.