Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Rottermund, Baron de

ROTTERMUND, Baron de, French geologist, b. in France in 1813; d. in Montreux, Switzerland, in 1858. He came to Canada, and was for some time in the service of the crown-lands department as an inspector of mines. He is principally remembered because of his attacks upon T. Sterry Hunt, the geologist, in 1850, and for his opposition to the theory of Sir William Logan that there are no coal-mines in Lower Canada. The baron held that coal existed both at Gaspé and Quebec, having discovered particles at the latter place. French geologists to whom these particles were submitted agreed with him, but finally the correctness of Sir William Logan's opinion was demonstrated. He wrote a report to the mayor of Quebec on combustible minerals to be found in that city.