Geological Survey building for the period 1882 to 1912, on the corner of George and Sussex streets in Ottawa, housed all staff and the museum. The building is still largely unchanged. Courtesy of LAC photo collection, PA-052671, photographer unknown.
When Low joined the Geological Survey in 1882, it had about 50 employees, a number which was more or less constant for the next 20 years. About half were permanent, and the rest part-time. As shown, all of its employees could fit into one photo. The organization operated as a separate unit under the Department of the Interior. Its ability to survey and report on the overall geology of Canada was complicated by the continuous demands by politicians and mining interests to devote more of its resources to work that would have a much more immediate pay-off, such as detailed surveys of promising outcrops for the development of mines. In addition to geology, the Survey also had the mandate to collect and publish observations on forests, Aboriginals, flora and fauna, and accordingly, was called the “Geological and Natural History Survey” until the mid-1880s. In the 1870s and 1880s, it was the main public scientific institution of Canada. When the Royal Society of Canada was established in 1882 to promote scientific exchanges and debates among the small scientific community in Canada, about half the members came from the Geological Survey.
Staff of the Geological Survey of Canada — 1888, photographed by Notman in the Museum, at 546 Sussex, Ottawa.18 For purpose of this book, the following are identified: 1. Sir William Logan; 6. Dr. Alfred R.C Selwyn; 7. George Mercer Dawson; 8. Richard G.McConnell; 9. Dr. J.B Tyrrell; 10. Prof.John Macoun; 15. Dr. Robert Bell; 17. Albert Peter; 18. Dr. Frank Dawson Adams; 19. Dr. R.W. Ells; 34. James M. McEvoy; Courtesy of Natural Resources Canada, Geological Survey of Canada GSC, photo 97342, Notman Studio.
During Low's career and prior to his directorship, the Geological Survey had three directors with whom Low had a day-to-day relationship. The first was Alfred Selwyn,19 (director from 1869 to 1895). Selwyn oversaw the expansion of the Geological Survey following the death of William Logan, including the hiring of a number of young geologists, such as Low and Tyrrell. When Low had a leadership dispute during Mistassini Expedition of 1884–85, it was Selwyn who backed him up and placed him in charge of the entire expedition. Between 1895 and 1901, the third director of the Geological Survey was George Dawson,20 son of the eminent geologist Sir William Dawson. In spite of a major spinal deformity, George Dawson participated in many expeditions, particularly in the west. His tenure as director was marked by a frozen budget and increasing demands from the mining industry to devote more attention to their interests. It is possible that in 1896 Dawson recommended Low for the Gill Memorial Award from the UK Royal Geographic Society. Following Dawson's sudden death in 1901, Robert Bell21 was made acting director, but never appointed as full director. In 1857, Bell had started part-time for the Geological Survey when he was 15, four years before Low was born. Bell was an influential scientist, and a charter member of the Royal Society of Canada. In spite of their large age difference, he and Low seemed to be on friendly terms — until Low was appointed as director over Bell in 1906.
Between 1882 and 1905, A.P. Low was one of the Geological Survey's foremost travellers, away on a mission every summer for the 24 years during that time. His life as a field geologist followed a seasonal cycle. In the spring, he would receive a written letter of instruction from the director of the Geological Survey, defining the area to be surveyed, the amount budgeted and outlining the objectives and expectations. He would prepare for the coming field season, leaving Ottawa in May or June. At least several weeks at the beginning and the end of each field season was spent simply travelling to and from distant survey areas by train, canoe or sailboat. Following his return in September or October (except for the four winters he spent in the field for the Geological Survey) he would plot his maps and refine his field notes into a report on the summer explorations and an interpretation, in readiness for the minute editing by the director for publication in the Geological Survey's annual report. The work of the winter and early spring would sometimes be relieved by travel to geological conferences in various parts of Canada or the United States, and once, in 1906,22 to Mexico.
Working conditions in the Geological Survey building reflected those of the times. The writing of the report and the many revisions were done by hand until typewriters were introduced in the 1890s. Several geologists shared a cramped office lit only by coal oil lamps. Telephones were introduced in the late 1890s and then only in the director's office. Civil servants normally worked on Saturday mornings in addition to long weekdays — normal working conditions for the time. The office air also reflected the presence of men who smoked pipes, and who washed just once a week as running water was not common in houses. Such crowded offices forced everyone to know each other well, but the atmosphere was slightly poisoned by the competition for promotion and salary increases. Many of the geologists knew politicians, and were not afraid to work connections behind the scenes.
A recurrent complaint about the Geological Survey at this time (and up to the present day) was the low pay in comparison to the private sector. Low started his career in 1882 at an annual salary of $700 (no income tax, but a deduction was made for payment into the superannuation fund). By 1892 his pay had risen to $1350 and, by 1901, to $1850 annually. There are no reliable statistics to describe inflation during that time, but it did exist. In the years before 1900, the Survey lost a number of experienced geologists, including Joseph Tyrrell, to the higher pay and brighter possibilities of the private sector. For example, while employed by the Geological Survey in the 1890s, Tyrrell tried to live on nine cents a day for food in order to make ends meet on his limited salary — this was largely a diet of wheat and beans and chickens he kept in the backyard.23 For Low, the costs of supporting his family on such a salary meant that he could never afford to own a house. In 1901, he quit the Survey and joined a private mining firm for $10,000 per year (more than five times his government salary), which he enjoyed for two years before the company ceased operations. He then rejoined the Geological Survey. Upon his appointment as director in 1906, his pay increased to $3,500 and then to $5000 when he was appointed as deputy minister of the Department of Mines the following year — still much lower than the private sector.
LIFE IN OTTAWA
Life in Ottawa in the last twenty years of the 19th century was not easy by today's standards. Ottawa in the 1880s still contained very strong remnants of its origins as a lumber town; large, squared log rafts were still being driven down the river as late as 1901. In 1887, a full twenty years after Confederation, the city had grown only to 40,000 residents.24 The population was comprised of Irish and Scottish immigrants, a large French-speaking group, a small contingent of people from England and the personnel of the newly formed federal government, including the members of Parliament who were present only when the House of Commons was in session. Although the market area where the Geological Survey was headquartered was best known for its many saloons and brothels, it was on the main street connecting the Parliament buildings and the residence of the governor general.
Many of the current downtown landmarks of the city, such as the War Memorial, the Château Laurier Hotel and Ottawa Union Railway Station, had not yet been built. Roads were dirt and, even as late as 1900, there was only one paved street in the city. “Sparks Street [now one of the main shopping streets in downtown Ottawa], the principal mudpath, looks like a canal of pea soup…It is covered from one end to another with about three inches of liquid mud. One enterprising shop has rigged up a canoe…with ‘for hire’ painted in large letters,' wrote James Seton Cockburn, a young immigrant draftsman, in 1884.”25 The first cars did not appear until the early 1900s. Houses were generally built of wood, and there was an acute housing shortage. Plumbing and water mains were first introduced in the late 1880s, but until the network was expanded, most people obtained water from backyard wells (often located close to outdoor privies), or by buying it from water deliverers. Wood fires provided heating and cooking; coal oil lamps provided light. The daily menu was simple, and varied with the seasons. Meat was pork and beef. Oranges were a luxury, bananas non-existent. In winter, root crops, stored apples and grains were staples. In summer — with the heat, cooking smoke, outdoor privies, horse manure and the lack of drains — the smell must have been more than just pungent.
Socially,