No. 2.] NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 107 



States, where, in many cases liberal and public and private endow- 

 ments have given a magnitude and stability to the operations of 

 kindred societies, which we have not been able to attain to ; and 

 while we have many favors to acknowledge, it is my decided 

 impression that the commercial and professional community of 

 Montreal has not appreciated as it should the eiforts of this Soci- 

 ety, nor treated it with the liberality which it deserves. In a 

 city such as this scientific workers are necessarily few ; and the 

 great majority of the people have little leisure even to give a 

 passing attention to the objects of a society like this. Still those 

 who do give to scientific pursuits either the intervals of leisure 

 snatched from daily work, or the time which they may have 

 earned for themselves or have inherited as a precious gift of for- 

 tune, are from their exertions in this way doubly valuable as 

 members of society ; and the professing and teaching naturalists 

 whom we can number, are in their place indispensable both to 

 our material and educational welfare. Further it is of great 

 importance that the taste and intellect of all classes of the com- 

 munity should be cultivated by an acquaintance with natural ob- 

 jects ; and the existence of a society of this kind is at once one 

 of the sure marks of high taste and culture, to which the city can- 

 point with pride, and has a useful function in providing a rational, 

 means of employing leisure as a counteraction to low and degrading 

 places of amusement which too often spring up with a vigor and 

 luxuriance of growth disproportionate to that of literary and 

 scientific institutions. 



I consider it a matter of no small importance that our Museum 

 represents to some extent the popular study of nature in this 

 community. In the Zoology of Canada it is undoubtedly the 

 most important collection in this country, and in other depart- 

 ments it has much of value and interest. It provides the means 

 of preserving, determining and exhibiting remarkable and interest- 

 ing specimens which would otherwise be lost. Its doors are ever 

 open to all who wish to know anything of our natural productions, 

 and to strangers who desire to obtain some acquaintance with the 

 aspects of nature in this country. Our Museum has now reached, 

 a somewhat critical point in its history. When the Society re- 

 moved into its present building, we seemed to have ample space 

 for our then comparatively small collections. But the objects in 

 our possession have grown until we are in need of much more 

 room, and our collection is again beginning: to be crowded, while 



