302 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. 



Government the undertaking of a scientific survey. The Natural 

 History Society, the University and the citizens generally, have 

 always supported the interests and aided the work of the Survey, 

 and have in many ways promoted its efficiency. Nor can an 

 institution possessing a Museum and Labratories which are the 

 growth of so many years, be hastily removed without serious 

 loss, only to be repaired by renewed effort and the lapse of time. 

 But to my mind these local considerations are overborne by 

 the change in the constitution of the Survey which has been 

 made, rather, I fear, in the spirit of a narrow bureaucracy than 

 of an enlightened regard for science. Hitherto the Survey, 

 while nominally under the control of an Ottawa Department, has 

 been in reality an independent institution, recognized as such 

 abroad. Its directors and principal officers have been men whose 

 reputation has far transcended that of the gentlemen who tem- 

 porarily occupy departmental offices at the seat of government. 

 It is now to be a branch of the Civil Service, a mere appendage 

 to the Department of the Interior. The effect of this may not 

 be felt for a time, but it must eventually tend to deprive the 

 Survey of its independent scientific action, to diminish its im- 

 portance and consideration abroad, and perhaps in the end to 

 reduce it to a mere industrial bureau, or to place it in the 

 uneasy position of that American Survey of the Territories, 

 which is in like manner attached to the Department of the In- 1 

 tenor: but which is there supplemented by the military surveys, 

 and by the surveys of the several states, some of which in their 

 scientific results have far surpassed it. There can be no doubt 

 that considerations of this kind weighed with the eminent and 

 sagacious Canadian who founded the Survey and raised it to its 

 present position of importance, in inducing him so strenuously to 

 oppose its removal to Ottawa. It is to be wished that his fears 

 may not be realised ; but I cannot refrain from expressing my 

 own strong conviction that these fears were well founded. The 

 clause providing for the removal of the Survey is, however, not 

 mandatory but only permissive. The carrying it into effect 

 would involve a large expenditure and most serious loss, and 

 would certainly contribute something to the cry beginning to 

 arise, not only in this Province but in those of the Atlantic 

 and Pacific Coasts, that this country is governed, not in the in- 

 terests of the Empire or of the Dominion in its whole extent, 

 but in those of a section of the people of Ontario. Let us hope 



