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Lss dicgrammes suivanta iiluatrent la m^tnoda. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 (DA\A/9c.K/,s//v: TcKA/ William"* C an tvcJ io«i i«ko-.phi*t4 ANNUAL MEETING OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF MOiNTREAL. -li — ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT :t^ PiiisciPAL Dawson, LL.U., F.K.S, May 18, 1877. In closing another Session of this Society, we naturally turn to the work of the past year, and in this address it is more espe- cially our scientific labours that claim attention. What haVe we done in the past year for the advancement of science, and for the credit of our country as one of the civilized nations of the world ? I would not underrate what we have accomplished for the popular diffusion of knowledge, by means of our museum, our excursions and our popular lectures, but the original investi- gations which we have given to the world constitute our best title to regard as a scientific association. In the course of the winter nine original communications have been laid before thie Society ; and of these the greater number have appeared or will appear in our Jou. ual. Of these commu- nications two ; namely, that on Inscriptions from Easter Island presented by Mr. D. Robertson, and Notes on Animals of India, did not refer to the natural history of this country. With re- spect to the former, he .vever, I may say that it has a connection with America in the circumstance that so many indications point to a migration of civilized or semi-civilized men into America by way of the Pacific, and to the probability that Easter Island was one of the stations in this migration. Mr. Hyde Clarke and Dr. Wilson have both directed attention to this subject, and have shown that in languages and physical features there are links of connection between the Polynesian and the Peruvian races, and that the ruins of large stone buildings found in so many of the Polynesian Islands, as well as the arts practised in those islands, point to similar conclusions. The possession of a sort of picture writiiig lor the keeping of family and tribal records in Easter Island, and the not very remote resemblance of this to some familiar American contrivances of the same kind, furnishes an additional link of connection. On the often dis- puted question of the source or sources of the aboriginal Ameri- can population, it now seems to be the settled conclusion of archaeology that we have good evidence oP prehistoric migrations of man into America by Behring's Straits from Northern Asia ; by the Pacific Islands from Southern Asia ; and by the Equato- rial Atlantic, by way of the Canaries anu West India Islands. i 2 To these wo htive to jiild the probability of Chinese andjapanese sliips having at, various times been drifted upon the Pacific const, and the discovery of Greenhnid and part of the mainland of America by the Norsemen in the tenth century. Thus tliere seems to be not one way merely but several in which America may have received its early population, and by which we may account for the native races of America with their languages and customs merely as derivatives from the old world, and without suppo.-^ing these tribes to bo true Autochthones. Two very interesting communications of a geological character were those of Prof. Hind on the Geology of Labrador, and of Mr, G. M. Dawson on Keccnt Elevations and Subsidences of the Land in British Columbia. Remote though these regions are from each other, they present some rem;;rkable points of simi- larity, especially in relation to their more recent geological his- tory. In both we have the evidence of the great glacial age. In both the surface glaciation and transport of boulders seen) to have been caused by the joint or successive action of water-b(trne ice, and glaciers. In both there are the most remarkable evi- dences of submergence to a great depth in the Post-pliocene age. It is a remarkable illustration of tlie vastness of the geological changes which have occurred in comparatively modern times, that we should find on the mountains of the Pacific Coast and those of the North Atlantic seaboard tiie indications of a com- mon submergence, and this of very great amount. Such vicis- situdes are not to be accounted for by merely local causes, but by grand agencies eflecting at once a whole hemisphere or the whole earth. Tn Britisli Columbia there seems to be good evidence of the submergence of the land to such an extent that sea margins occur 5270 feet above the level of the sea, and at various elevations between this and tlie present sea level. In the Kucky Moun- tains Mr. Dawson had previously measured the height of similar terraces 4400 feet above the sea. While those great depressions occurred in tiie Post-pliocene period, there is evidence to show that in '.he preceding Pliocene age the land in British Columbia may have been 901. feet ' igher than at present. On the other hand, in modern times , e coast would seem to have been going down at a r;,te in some cases of as much as ten to fiftisen feet in a century ; wliile there are Indian traditions of sudden waves overflowing the land, and perhaps occa.sioned by earthquake movements. With reference to these modern changes, it should be observed that British Columbia forms a part of that great band of volcanic and seismic activity which extends along the west coast of America, iind which presents in our own time and in the more recent geological periods, evidences of agencies which have long slumbered on the eastern margin of the continent. On our own side of America, the nnmerous terraces no v/ell developed on the Lower St. Lawrence, mark the stages of re- cession of the Post-pliocene ocean. Mr. Richardson informs me i 3 foundland, at u height "/ 1-;^ ;;;'] ^^^ fi,,^ travelled Lauren- Mountain, in our own "«H;»^bou.hood we ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^ Uan stones which must ^av^ b -^^^^ bon.^' ^^ ^^^^^ ?rt 'f ?n t'uurvlli to i avl! been dcpoBited by flc.tin, Hitchcoek on 31ouut vv .>«m»& mountains must have boon ice the. the highest »,,,,..» o^_ ™;»»X,p,i„„e„e submor- underwater at the time m " ■„ ,v,,..,,.to,l ..ttent on to many ,euce. Mr.Milne ""^JE"" tt" luliltcd i. GrJt facts of similar import whic, ■'."^,^'^ '"-,.„, wi„„i„„to realize Britain aodinNorj^ Geo, o,--^^^^^ ttie evidepce of a prevuieuct m ^" , -^^ . ^yh ch at one phere in the most recent ot he ^'^.o^^'fj'^Xno't scepticism. Le they would have regarded with i u. « -^ ,.^^^^^,,,,,1,, to While noticing these papers, I wou d bo a . .^^ the evidence which ^^y^^^^^^^^^LnecUo. with as distinguished from th 't o ^^^^^ attributed to floating ^^"V^ '^ '"JZl i:e° by t Sits of the late Arctic espodi- pack ice ad pan icc oy .^^ ^^^^^^^ .^p^,3 tion, as well as by Prof. Hiud ami ^y^^ , ^ observations in the Geological Maga^me. On lie^^^^^ ^,^ ^,^^1,. of Hellond on the glaciers ot ^i^^*?"'-^"^' i^t one of the great gical Magazine, state the interesting tact -^^ «ne ot ^^ ^^ glaciers of that country flows seaward " ^^^^^^.^^^^^^f ^,, ,^ore h metres in a day, and ^'^'f ^'^^;^''"^1 like this lS*«S?orriroti;:*:al;ae,,uatee.pU,,a. tioQ- „ , , , ., ^t.-pnotUen the conclusion that All these new facts tend ^^ ^^ ^^^ati t ice and of local general submeri-encc and the action o ^^^""n glaciers afford the cause^it work m ^-^ li^o ^.ratulate In the 'lepartmeut of Zoology wo^have I ason ^^_^^^ ourselves on the coniniuniciition ot Di- 0» ^^ ^ erestu.g animals, Polyzoa of Canada. These 7»"-'--^^=^bk^ J^ .'^ slowor streams thoigh abunda.. in o^^^^.^ ponds^ ^ItHbution of Dr. have as yet received little •attention . ^^^^ Osier brought under our "ot^^le ^ a I'of them of very forming communities of consideiable size, ana great interest and beauty. n.„.n^>ntor to the subject of " Our attention was called by Dr Cail^^ ^-^ ^ ^u J^ Zoological num.uiclature, ^"/o'^.^^^^^J^^^.f J ', Uie Advance- Mr. D.:lle on behalf of the American ^ o^/^.^^^^^; . Carpenter . ,nent of Science. With the ^-^1^^!,^ .^i;;'j^';,i'^^^^^^ us ,,ost of us I think in the main ^^^^^^ j''^^ genu^nakers very reprehensible many ot ^bo eecui cities ^ ^,^^,^^,,1^,, and species-niake.«. more concerned to gai ueU t ^^^ than to advance the interests of scien e, ^^^Z^ uncertain over-scrupulous unti^iuarianism which would icvive • * • and for<,'ottcn names to the excluf»ion of those sanctioned by lonp; use. There is perhaps little hope that these evils can be wholly remedied "i th«! present state of science, when there is in this respect no k.og in Israel, and every man does wh it is right m hh own eyes. We believe however that the old rules sanctioned by the British Association, with a moderate amount of self-abne- gation and common sense, will be sufficient to secure all that is really necessary. The lamented death of Mr. Billings is a heavy blow to thi.s Society, as well as to the causae of science in Canada ; and one of our meetings was appropriately occupied with mi obituary notice by his successor, Mr. Whiteaves. It is not necessary for Lie to refer to the details contained in that notice. I may re- mark however that Mr. Billings maybe considered as tiie creator of Canadian Palaeontology, in so far as the Invertebrate fossils of the Pala,H.zoic rocks are concerned. This department he built up from its foundations, and built so extensively and so well, that it will be long before his work can bi> hidden trom view by any additions to be made by his successors. As a worker he was painstaking and cautious rather than rapid, and his results vvere always regarded with respect and confidence by those engaged in similar pursuits elsewhere. He was not a mere describer of species, but a geologist oV sound and broad views, and his earlier works show a power of lucid and popular presentation of his subject which it is perhaps to bo regretted he did not follow up in his later years. One of his greatest failings was a certain shrinking from publicity, which rendered him indisposed to take a prominent position even in the work of our own Society, and still more tended to prevent him from entering into any presen- tation of his favourite studies to the general public in any other form than that of official reports and scientific papers. Such men as Mr. Billings are produced in small numbers in any country, and it may be long before Canada possesf.es as one of her own sons a second Billings. It is however a remarkable coincidence that such a man should have been preparing himself to second t\w work of Sir William Logan just at the time when Palseontological work had become a prime necessity for the Ca- nadian Survey. i • . u I have reserved to the last some remarks connected with ttie subject of my own paper on the Geology of the Intercolonial Railway, and which subject I desire here to refer to in a some- what broad and discursive manner, demanded I think by the present condition of science and the industrial arts in this country. I would in this cosnection desire to direct your atten- tion to the immense importance of that great public work, and to the effects which would flow from a further extension of similar entiM-prise in the west. I can remember a time when the isola- tion of the Maritime provinces from Canada proper was almost absolute. There was a nearly impassable wilderness between, and no steamers on the waters, and the few whom business or adventure caused to travel from Halltax or St, Johri to Quebec or Montreal, had to undertake a costly and circuitous journey through the United States, or to submit to almost interminable singing through a wilderness, or to the delays of some Hailing craft on the St. Lawrence. In later times steamboats have supplied a less tedious mode of communication, and now we see placards informing us that the Intercolonial carries pas- sengers from Quebec to Halifax in twenty-six hours. But it has done more than this. Tho tr.iveller may now sec the coal of Nova Scotia travelling upward to Quebec, and the fresh ^^\i of the Atlantic ooast abundantly supplied in our markets, while the agricultural products of the interior travel seawards in re- turn.' This is however but the begini\ing of a great change. A delegation of coal owners was in Ottawa last month endeavour- ing to attract the attention of members of the Legislature to the fact that Ontario might be cheaply supplied with coal from Nova Scotia in return for her farm products. The representa- tion led to no immediate practical results, but it fore.shadows a gre;(t future chai\ge. Living as we do on the borders of that great nation without any name, except that of America, which does not belong to it, and which builds an almost impa.ssable wall of commercial restriction along its frontier, we cannot long endure the one-sided exchange of commodities which takes place at present so much to our disadvantage. The Nova Scotian cannot buy flour and manuiactured goods from a people who refuse to take his coal and iron in exchange; and the Ontarian or Quebecker cannot afford to have the commercial connectic" with tile mother country severed in favour of a nation which will not take the products of our fields, our forects, our mines or our granaries in exchange. We shall have in self-defence to cultivate our own internal trado, and even if we must bring the products of the Pacific and Atlantic Coasts across a whole con- tinent to meet each other, this will be cheaper in the end than to sacrifice our own interests and those of the empire to tho Chinese policy of our neighbours in the South. The diversities of products in countries depends much on differences in latitude, but there are also diversities depending on longitude, and, fortunately our country possesses these in no small degree. On our Atlantic coast we have rich fisheries and minerals not possessed by the interior regions. In these last, through all the great regions extending from Quebec to the Rocky Mountains, we have vast breadths of fertile soil besides many of the elements of mineral wealth, and varied kinds of manufactures are growing up boih on the coast and inland. What is to hinder a direct exchange of commodities within our- selves instead of an indirect exch.\nge under the mo.st serious disadvantages with the United States. Further, sucli direct exchange would increase our trade with Great Britain and the West Indies, and bind together the somewhat divergent sections of ou" own population. The opening up of railway corcmunica- 6 tion ucrosH tho ,i.'rt'ui western plain iiiij:,iit do fur us what a wiiiiiiar proco.MH lias done for Ninv York. But, from a railway toruiitiuM (.11 the I'iicific Hliort! we could stntteh our coamuircial relations over that j>Teat ocean, and briiiij; all the tre.iHure.s of the Orierjt to enrich our markets. Further, in establishing communication with Britisli Columbia, we are not merely tstablishin-;- a landini:; place on the Pacific, thouu;h this would be an inestimable advau- tage. British Columbia is in the mining point of view, one of the richest portions of the earth's surface. It is of more value acre lor acre than any portion of the Eastern States or of Canada proper. In an appendix attached to a recent report on the Pa- cific railway, Mr. G. M. Diwson has collected some details as to the mineral wealth of this region. Me mentions tfold-fields yielding now more than a million and a half of dollars annually. In eighteen years British Columbia with only 10,000 inhabi- tants has exported gold to the amount of 40,000,00(» of dollars ; and it is no exi.ggeration to say that with a larger population and better means of conveyance this yield might be increased twenty fold. Coal exists on Vancouver's Island and the neighbouring main- land in inexhaustible abuudai\ce, and of excellent quality, and represents the .sole supplies of that mineral on the Pacific coast of North America. British Columbia might supply the whole Pacific coast and a vast interior region, and might produce many millions of tons annually. Iron, silver und ccpper are known to exist in productive fjuau- titles, and there is reason to believe that mercury, load, and platinum might be added. In short, British Columbia posssesses all that mineral wealth which has enriched California and the States adjoining it ; and the opening up of communication between it and other parts of the Dominion would be the beginning of a series of events that would build up gicat and wealthy cities and poj)ulous .-eats of indu.stry in a region now scarcely inhabitv-i, and cut off from direct intercourse with the other provinces politically connected with it. What the Intercolonial has begun to do for our relations with the Atlantic provinces, the Canada Pacific must do for our rela- tions with the Pacific province ; and if I could present before you in a prophetic picture all that would follow from the estab- lishment of such a connection, and the trade of the great sea aud lands beyond, which might flow through our country, you as citizens of a commercial city, as well as inthe capacity of votu ' ^^ of science and s^cientific art, would at once say that at almost any sacrifice this great work should be executed. The difficul- ties in the way are undoubtedly great — so great that this gene- ratiod of Canadians should scarcely be called r.pon to overcome them unaided, but they are probably not insurmountable, and the mode of meeting them is certainly at present the greatest public problem that our statesmen have to solve. It is further > • , > > ticl results of its ndu on' ; ' 'i; '' ^''•' "'■'^'♦'•" "'' tl.c pr.c- tory fro,„ the Atlantic to "he pSc " '"^' "^''' ""•" ^^'^'•'- our connection with the \L, , r /''"-l ''''P*^^ ^ ^""•'^"Jid.-'to in.li.pons...ble to he nte^re^s « 1 ii?"^ "j^ '"■''^'"" •'"'•^^'^-^ con.n.ercial yoke i./i u .^ ' "h' b .;'"'"'' 'm ^'■•'"' ^''^-''•'^l'•"^' homes and work for the MSu,,,m.r; "^''^^°'^ 'o provide ^0 build un th. wenit 0 .^";^7;",f'""'^^"»'- •''•'•■'• Provinces, vastandn.tundlyw ht; ;on TT c^''^''-. ""d to ren.Je; millioMs of .Mcn. ^ ^ '^"' ^""^"«tive of subsistence for When I look forward to the futur.. of fl : my MUticipatioMs, not on the nore v Ln ", "'"""'•^' ""*^ ^>"«o but on the ,eo]o,ie treas^r" ^ ''uTr: tT"'' 1 ^"-'^>'' Dominion of Canada with •. normi .w^ ^ "^'*^"' ^ ««« the United St,.tes, ,.nd w Vh sorne ot h;' "'^ f '"' "'^ ''"'^ "^' ^'^^ cities of this continent in SovaS.oti,/''V'n "-"^ ^<'-Mn..t Geologists are not n.ere'y prc.n letV^ f h ""^ ^V^''^'^ (^^olumbia. thing of the* future .s\^dl It i U '"' ' '''^'^ ''""^ ««'"«- could i,.cuh,te our sta^^:'; w^, 2,*^^ ^^^^" ''' ^ ogical future of Cana.I.-, or ..v, „ v ; ^ . ■ '" ^'•*' M^^o- billions of dollars of .^"iiiMJ.!^ .^ ^'' ry"'-..^a.nt idea of" he billions of doHar; r;^';^;os::ib;e'ii;" "'' TT^^T '^^ "^'^he of British Columbia Tnd No a Cth w'' ^ -"r^'^ ^''^' ^ *•'"- — '"--' - ^''" « '^(-oti... We might then see T'o •lo -"thin the it to wait 'fS. Much >u tiie urn est lis not the™ put forth s;;^;^^;,,;^--;:-^ the et on of „,en wiser and nux-e energetic Of he f,.,tu.e of our own .Society I Z niust depend on .-, judicious sel-vtion oi ' ^-l.^whichtheilubiiemavJx;! t^u:. cffor s which our working uu.mbers a.ay pit for. merely „i the pursuit of new in.tlw K ?• , '•« »ot « desire for th.-.t knowleXe vvl ich ^ / 1!'' '"^''^'"''"^ '" "^''^''-^ Porience to be in itself one of V. ':^, l^"^^' ^'•^>'» our own ex- world nffords. "' "^ *''^ ''^''^'^^ treasures which the rec^t^^t 7Z So^ZJTv '' "^ "^ ^'''« --'-«" that a the Geological Sur^'Z^^'^l^ r'^'^ '*• I^-ble that ment had its domicile in th s hv' s hi' T''l ''' «^^'»r»^"nce- pr.-.ctical science in the Domin io^. i -."i ' ' "^ ^''^"""erce and be removed to Ottawa 'niaTZl'L"''i"" ''"' «'• ^^^« >'ears would be a seriousWtT ti ^9n'"^'^.''^^"^^^'^'°toek^^ papers at.d lectures con'ribut^lhv?' *H^'''«^ ""'^'ber of the active part they C taken f,^^'"''''' "^ *^^^ Purvey, and as officers ^and mln^hlVteZl %T''''^^^^ would also Imve its Xt on h/n .^''^ ''^'^^«^'«J of the Survey of the t^umerousstufo :LtorrtTthl^'e*rV'^ *i" '°^--^' well as on those of gentlemen ^^^J^^^t^i:^::^:^- ma iiijj; nnd fiinilar tiitcrpristw wliich l:iiv«! tlioir coniro hero. Nor would wuch ninoviil li' witlnmt injurious influLiiCL' on the Survey ifsi'lf. This 8(U!inty \v;is the first public hodj to ur^'o on tho (Jovrniimint the ujidertiMtinj,' oi' ;i seieiitifie survey. The Natural History Society, the UM'vrsity and tiie citizens ^'C'lerally, have always supported the intenist" and aided the work of the Survey, and have in many ways promoted its efficiency. Nor can an institution possessinj; .i iMuseum and IiabriUori.;s which are the jirowth oi W) many years, be hastily removed witliout serious loss, only to he rt-paired by renewed effort ion! the lapse of time. But to my mind thi;se loeal considerations :ire overborne by the i5han«;»! in the constitution of the Survey which .ms beftn made, rather, 1 fear, in the spiri* of a narrow bureaucracy than of an enlij;litetied rejiard for science. Hitherto the Survey, while nominally under tlie control ot an Ottawa Department, has been in reality an independent institution, reeo,u;nized as .such abroad. Its directors and [)rincipal officers have been men whose reputation has far transcended that of the j^ontkmen who tcsi' porarily occupy departmental offices at the seat of government. It is now to be .. branch of the Civil Service, a mere appendaj^^e to the Department of the Interior. Tl.i! effect of this may not be felt for a time, but it muse event: dly tc.id to deprive the Survey of its independent scientific act) >n, to diminish its im- portance and considoralioii abroad, and p.;rhaps in the end to reduce it to a mere industrial bureau, or to place it in the uneasy position of tliut American Survey ol" the Territories, which is in like manner attached to tlie Department of the In- terior: but which is there MippU-mented by tiie military surveys, and by the surveys of the several states, some of which in their scientific results have far surpa.ssed it. There can be no doubt that eonsideratioiiS of this kind wei>>hcJ wiMi the eminent and sagacious Canadian who founded the Survey and raised it to its present position of importance, in inducing him so strer.uously to oppose its removal t.j Ottawa. It is to be wished that his fears may not be realised; but I oannot refrain from expressing my own strong conviction that these fears were well founded. The clause providing for the removal of the Survey is, however, not mandatory but only permissive. The ca'-ryiug it into effect would involve a large expenditure and most serious loss, and would certainly contribute something to the cry beginning to arise, not only in this Province but in tho.se of the Atlantic and and Pacific Coasts, that this country is governel, not in the in- terests of the Empire or of the Dominion in its whole extent, but in those of a section of the people of Ontario. Let us hope that wiser counsels may prevail, or that some turn of the politi- cal wheel may suggest other measures or bring in other men.