374 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. ix. 



NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



ANNUAL MEETING, MaY 18, 1880. 



The Annual Meeting of the Society was held on the evening 

 of Thursday, 18th May. In the absence of the President, Prin- 

 cipal Dawson occupied the chair. 



The minutes of the last Annual Meeting were read and 

 approved. The Chairman addressed the meeting, giving a very 

 interesting sketch of the last visit of the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science to this city, which was in the 

 year 1857. The preceding meeting was held in Albany, when 

 all the delegates from the Montreal Society, including Sir 

 William Logan, Dr. Smallwood, Dr. Hingston, Mr. Rennie, 

 the then Secretary, himself an^ others, were requested to re- 

 present the Association at the meeting in this city. Three invit- 

 ations were received by the Association, but the one from 

 Montreal was preferred and accepted. The Society here suc- 

 ceeded in inducing two delegates from England to be present 

 also, viz : — Professor Ramsay, representing the Geolo.2jical 

 Society, and Dr. Seaman representing the Linnaean Society. 

 Owing to the difficulty of finding a suitable place to hold the 

 meeting — the public halls, with the exception of Mechanics', not 

 being built — the meeting was held in the Court House. Wel- 

 comes were tendered on behalf of the city and country, and the 

 visitors were entertained by the Natural History Society, by the 

 College, and by the Corporation of the city. Two excursions were 

 organized, one to St. Helen's Island by Colonel Munro, and the 

 other to Ste. Anne's and Beauharnois. Altogether it was a most 

 successful meeting. In correspondence with the Secretary he 

 learned an invitation from Montreal would be very popular now — 

 among the members of the Association. It should be borne in mind 

 that if the invitation were given, it should be carried out with 

 the same spirit and generosity as it was then. For various 

 reasons it had been considered unwise to extend the invitation 

 before the summer of 1882. 



It was then moved by Dr. De Sola, seconded by Dr. Hingston, 

 and unanimously resolved : " That the Council now to be elected 

 take measures to invite the American Association for the Ad- 



