No. 8.] NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 475- 



square miles of good soil, which should the climate be as favor, 

 able for the growth of wheat as we have reason to believe, would 

 produce over 300,000,000 bushels annually. 



Mr. Whiteaves made some remarks concerning the fossils 

 which Dr. G. M. Dawson had exhibited to illustrate his address. 



It was moved by Mr. G. L. Marler, seconded by Mr. T. G. 

 Brainerd, and unanimously resolved. " That this Society, in 

 view of the contemplated removal of the Geological Survey from 

 the city, would earnestly deprecate any departure from the pledge 

 given on behalf of the Government by the Hon. Mr. Masson in 

 his letter to the Board of Trade, of December 20th, 1879, that 

 the museum accumulated under the late Sir W. E. Logan should 

 be maintained in Montreal, and would express the hope that re- 

 gard to the promise made, as well as the respect due to the 

 expressed wish of Sir W. E. Logan, to the important educational 

 and individual interests represented in this city, and to what we 

 believe would be the unanimous wish of scientific men through- 

 out the world were they consulted in the matter, may lead to the 

 adoption of such measures as will leave undisturbed the collec- 

 tion made by our late lamented colleagues Logan and Billings" 



Principal Dawson said a definite pledge had been given in an 

 autograph letter from Hon. Mr. Masson to the Board of Trade 

 that the Museum would be maintained. So the matter remained 

 till a few weeks ago, when the rumor spread that the Museum 

 building had been rented and that the Survey had been reques- 

 ted to pack up and leave by the first of May. To his mind the 

 destruction of the Museum was an act of the o;rossest vandalism. 

 The Museum, the work of men like Sir William Logan and the 

 late Mr. Billings, was a kind of sacred inheritance to Canada, 

 and he fully believed that if it were known to scientific men 

 throughout the world that it was being so removed, there would 

 be an unanimous cry of indignation against it from every scientific 

 man worthy the name. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



On new Erian ( Devonian) Plants. By J. W. Dawson, 

 LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S. [Abstract of a paper read before the 

 Geological Society of London, June 23d. 1880.] 



The paper first referred to recent publications bearing on tha 

 Erian (Devonian) flora of N.E. America, and then proceeded to 

 describe new species from New York and New Brunswick, and to- 

 notice others from Queensland, Australia, and Scotland. 



