No. 2.1 NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 107 



_i 



ANNUAL MEETING. 



The Ammal Meeting: for the Session 1880-81 was lield oa 

 Wednesday evening, May 18th, 1881. The President, Principal 

 Dawson, occupied the chair. The minutes of the hist annual 

 meetino- were read and sustained. 



Having presented Major Latour v/ith the Society's Bronze 

 Medal for his many important services to the Society, the Presi- 

 dent delivered his 



ANNUAL ADDRESS, 



in the course of which he said that the year just closed had been 

 distinguished more for the improvements made in the Museum 

 of the Society and in its financial position than for extent of 

 scientific work, though the latter had not been inconsiderable. 

 The Society had sustained a great loss by the removal to Ottawa 

 of several very efficient members connected with the Geological 

 Survey and it was the more important on this account that it 

 should endeavour to increase its membership and more particu- 

 larly to attach to itself young men who take an interest in science. 

 He referred to the discoveries resulting from the labors of Mr. 

 Ells, Mr. Whiteaves, Mr. Foord and Mr. Weston in the upper part 

 of Bale des Chaleurs. The remarkable association in that locality, 

 within a very limited space, of Upper Silurian, Devonian and 

 Lower Carboniferous rocks, was in itself of much interest, and 

 the remarkable group of Upper Devonian fishes worked out by 

 Mr. Whiteaves, and described by him at one of their meetings, 

 coinpleted a link of connection between the fossils of this country 

 and of Great Britain. The plant remains of this locality also, 

 connecting as they did the Gasp^ sandstones with the Perry beds 

 and with the Cattskill series of New York, were of the highest 

 interest. A communication received latter in the session, from 

 Mr. R. Chalmers, on the Postpliocene of the same region, has 

 further added to our knowledge of this interesting region, on the 

 confines of New Brunswick and Quebec. In connection w^ith 

 more Western regions, Dr. Selwyn, of the Geological Survey, has 

 presented a paper on discoveries of fossil plants in the Lignite 

 tertiary of Roches Percees, in the Western Territories. An- 

 other interesting geological subject was that of the structure of 

 the Peace River District, as explained by Dr. G. M. Dawson, 



