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^ly hearers may be surprised, but i am correct in stating that we 

 imade a far better exhibition of our Natural History in England than 

 we do in any i)art of Canada, and it is a standing reproach to us that 

 we have never yet had anything approaching to a complete repre- 

 sentation, and more still, we have never had a place to put such a 

 collection in if we had made it. It is altogether different in the United 

 Stales. As that country has developed museums have been established, 

 specialists appointed to lake charge of the various branches, and to-day 

 they have a staff of specialists second to none in the world, ready to 

 tackle any subject of importance to the country. 



A few years since the report got abroad that the fisheries along the 

 American coast of the Atlantic were giving out. At once a commis- 

 sion was appointed and in the course of a few years re})orts were 

 puVjlished giving every detail of the work, and not only reporting on 

 the various species of fish but on their food likewise. The results of 

 these investigations are placed in the National Museum at Washington. 

 The raising of cattle on the " great plains" becomes a business of 

 national importance, and a specialist to study the pasture grasses and 

 a cLemist are appointed and attached to the Bureau of Agriculture at 

 Washington. Various diseases attack the growing crojis, insects com- 

 naait ravages, and in every case men are set to work to investigate, 

 collect and classify ; bulky volumes are published and the knowledge 

 pread broadcast over the land, while the objects themselves are placed 

 in museums for the instruction of the people. My work has caused me 1 

 to come in contact with these specialists, and through them I have ji 

 learned the value of these stores of Natural History and oiher objects [ 

 which are being gathered together at Washington. It is painful to 

 confess that all our best specimens, whether mineral, animal or 

 archaeological, are going to Washington, and the apathy of our people is 

 such that I see no help for it. 



I have learned the value of these collections, and my English 

 visit has been so convincing that T consider silence concerning our posi- 

 tion a virtue no longer, and take the present occasion of laying our case 

 before an Ottawa audience in the hope that we may arouse attention to 

 -a question that is truly a national one. After much opposition 

 the headquarters of the Geological Survey were removed from Montreal 



