442 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. X. 



historic.! 1 facts in the case. All desire to honor Professor 

 A<;\-issiz, nnd no one more .>^o th.in the writer; and still the 

 name that most deserves honor in connection with the develop- 

 ments in Central North America is that of General G. K. 

 Warren But lather than use either, it is better to let the 

 accepted name, Lake Winnipe<i-, be the name for past, as it is for 

 the present time. 



NATURAL HLSTORY SOCIETY PROCEEDINGS. 



Tlie first reaular meetinii" for tlie session 1882-83 was held 

 on the evening of October 30th — Principal Dawson occupied the 

 chair. 



Mr. Wm. Little and Rev. Robert Campbell were elected mem- 

 bers of the Society, and Messrs. J. H. Burland. J. A. Porter, J. 

 Alphonse Bcaudry and Albert Holden, were proposed for mem- 

 bership. 



Principal Dawson read an interesting paper on '• Portions of 

 the Skeleton of a Whale from Gravel on the line of the C.P.R., 

 near Smith's Falls," which have been presented to the Peter 

 Redpatli 3Iuseum, and were exhibited to the Society. The 

 remains were those of one of the larger whales, probably Balcetia 

 hoojys. This species is well known to the Gaspe whalers. Tlie 

 writer had seen it as far up the St. Lawrence as the mouth 

 of the Syguenay, and there is reason to believe it occasionally 

 luns up much further. Some evidence exists that whales caught 

 at Gaspe have a species of barnacle known only in the Pacific 

 Ocean, Possibly these have discovered the North West passage. 

 The bones of the Mastodon (land elephant), which are often 

 found, probably belong to the same period as these whales. The 

 whales, seals, and other fishes still exist in our seas, while the 

 land animals are extinct. When these whales were stranded the 

 sea was probably 450 feet above the present level of the St. Law- 

 rence. 



Dr. T. Sterry Hunt said that the interesting remarks of Dr. 

 Dawson showed that the naturalist of the present day not only 

 studied the remains which he discovered, but also reconstructed 

 the geography of the surface of the globe. Historically the.se bones 

 were ancient, bat geologically quite recent, and were valuable as 

 showing the changes now going on. 



For further particulars concerning these remains the reader is 

 referred to page 385 of this number of the N(fti(rnh'fit. 



