Memorial to Arthur H. Lang1905-1990

R. W. BOYLEGeological Survey o f Canada (retired), Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

With the death of A. H. Lang in Ottawa on July 19, 1990, in his 86th year, Canada and the world lost an eminent eco­nomic geologist, an international expert on Canadian ura­nium deposits, and a friend to prospectors.

A rthur H am ilton Lang w as born July 3, 1905, in Peachland, B ritish C olum bia, attended public schools there, and later graduated form the University of British Columbia with a B.A. and M.A. in geology. From UBC,Lang went to Princeton University, where he received his Ph.D. in 1930. His thesis, “Geology and Ore Deposits of Owen Lake M ining Camp, B.C.,” was published in the Geological Survey of Canada Summary Report for 1929.

Following graduation from Princeton, Lang joined the Geological Survey of Canada in 1930 as assistant geologist and was assigned field w ork in the A bitibi gold belt of Quebec, including Chibougamau, Waswanipi Lake, Palmorolle and Taschereau map area. From this work Lang produced several field reports and maps during the period 1932-1936. It was during this time that Lang used bush aircraft for transport and reconnaissance and air photos for the preparation of topographic and geologic maps, all firsts for the G eological Survey of Canada. He also emphasized the use of air photos in prospecting to recognize faults, shear zones, lineaments, and so on, a technique that was soon employed by progressive prospectors throughout Canada.

Soon after the outbreak of World War II, Lang enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force, but was demobilized at the request of the Metals Controller who, in 1940 considered his talents more valuable in the search for strategic minerals then being organized by the Geological Sur­vey. Lang was then assigned to field work in British Columbia and Alberta, the results of which were several Geological Survey field reports, some on metal mining areas and others, mainly in Alberta, on potential petroleum and natural gas districts.

Following the war, the government of Canada decided to permit and encourage private prospecting and mining of uranium and other atomic materials. The Geological Survey was cho­sen by the Atomic Energy Control Board as their agent for correlating the data for prospecting, exploration, testing, and evaluation of uranium prospects and maintaining an inventory of all Canadian uranium and thorium deposits. All this work was organized under the Radioactive Resources Division of the Survey with H. V. Ellsworth as chief and Arthur Lang as geologist in charge of field operations and inventory. After Ellsworth’s death in 1952, Lang became chief of the division. Later, this division became the Mineral Deposits Division of which he remained chief until his retirement in 1970. During his tenure as chief of the Mineral Deposits Division, Lang wrote several papers on radioactive materials and published a metallogenic map of ura­nium in Canada, a project, as far as I know, that was a first in metallogenesis. Thereafter he encouraged others in the division to prepare similar metallogenic maps of the other metals.

Following his retirement from the Geological Survey, Arthur Lang undertook part-time contracts with Parks Canada for the preparation of geological guidebooks for several national parks. Four of these guidebooks have been published.

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48 THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA

Lang published more than 100 reports, maps, and books on various aspects of Canadian geology and economic geology. He served as secretary of the symposium committee for the first volume of Structural Geology o f Canadian Ore Deposits, published in 1948, wrote two papers for the volume, and acted as editor for others. In all of his writing he was precise, concise, clear, and factual; he emphasized field geology in economic geology and had little time for theory. His most important economic geology publication was “Canadian Deposits of Uranium and Tho­rium” (1962), written with J. W. Griffith and H. R. Steacy. This was the first comprehensive compilation of uranium and thorium deposits in Canada—indeed, in any country in the world. His other famous publication was Prospecting in Canada (1970). This publication has sold more copies than any other report of the Geological Survey; it has been used extensively by prospec­tors, and parts have been utilized in adult education and high school studies. It has been trans­lated by several countries and used as a textbook in the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.

Arthur Lang was particularly cognizant of the role of the Geological Survey in the econ­omy of Canada, and he wrote and lectured on this subject. In one cost/benefit analysis he was able to show as of 1968 that 1.8% of the value of the Elliott Lake uranium deposits, the discov­ery and development of which the GSC had aided in many ways, would pay the entire operating cost of the GSC since its inception in 1842.

Lang was a bachelor and a very private person, especially in his later years. He was most fastidious in his habits, as I was to learn when, as his assistant in the Northwest Territories, I was lectured on how to maintain a “sparkling” frying pan in a bush camp. He was always inter­ested in the natural environment when he was in the field; he knew much about plants and the various types of mosses and lichens, and he was an expert on Canadian birds. He skied from age 10 to age 80 and was an avid golfer after his retirement.

Arthur Lang was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society of America in 1947 and a Fel­low of the Royal Society of Canada in 1951. He was a member of the 50 Year Club of the Cana­dian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. He has been honored by the Geological Survey of Canada by the “Lang Lecture” given each year by an eminent economic geologist at their Min­erals Colloquium.

SELECTED BIBLIO G R A PH Y OF A. H. LANG1930 Owen Lake Mining Camp, British Columbia: Geological Survey of Canada Summary

Report, p. 62-91.1933 Palmarolle and Taschereau map areas, Abitibi County, Quebec: Geological Survey of

Canada Summary Report, 1932, Part D, p. 22-35.1936 Keithley Creek map area, Cariboo District, B. C.: Geological Survey of Canada

Paper 36-15.1940 Houston map area, British Columbia: Geological Survey of Canada Paper 40-18.1942 Manson Creek, British Columbia: Geological Survey of Canada Paper 42-02.1946 Brule and Entrance map areas, Alberta: Geological Survey of Canada Memoir 244.1958 Metallogenic map: Uranium in Canada: Geological Survey of Canada, A Series Map

1045A-M1.1961 A preliminary study of Canadian metallogenic provinces: Geological Survey of Canada

Paper 60-23.------ Metallogenic maps: Economic Geology, v. 56, no. 6, p. 1123-1132.1962 On the relation of metal occurrences to tectonic divisions of the Canadian Shield, in Tec­

tonics of the Canadian Shield: Royal Society of Canada Special Publication 4, p. 16-21.

MEMORIAL TO ARTHUR H. LANG 49

------(and Griffith, J. W., and Steacy, H. R.) Canadian deposits of uranium and thorium (secondedition): Geological Survey of Canada, Economic Geology Series No. 16,324 p.

1970 Prospecting in Canada (fourth edition): Geological Survey of Canada, Economic Geology Report No. 7,308 p.

1974 Guide to the geology of Prince Albert National Park; A story of hills, lakes and beaches: Geological Survey of Canada Miscellaneous Report No. 21,40 p.

1979 (and Ruzicka, V.) Some geological side-effects of the search for radioactive minerals in the Canadian Shield, in Kupsch, W. O., and Sarjeant, W.A.S., eds., History of concepts in Precambrian geology, Geological Association of Canada Special Paper 19, p. 133-148.

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