1865.] NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 303 



extensively circulated. When we consider the difficulties expe- 

 rienced by scientific periodicals both in Britain and the United 

 States, it is not surprising that a scientific journal in Canada 

 should be slenderly supported. Still I think that, if the value of 

 the articles contained in the Naturalist, and the importance of sus- 

 taining it, were properly understood, its subscription list would be 

 largely increased. I earnestly commend this matter to the attention 

 of members of the Society. It will be proposed in connection 

 with this, in the Report of the Council, that a new class of members 

 should be created in connection with the Society, namely, non- 

 resident ordinary members, who should pay a subscription equiv- 

 alent to that for the Naturalist, and should enjoy the advantages 

 of the meetings and museum of the Society, during any visits they 

 might make to the city. In this way I have no doubt that some- 

 thing might be done toward the introduction of a taste for Natural 

 History, as well as toward the extension of the circulation of the 

 Naturalist. It is to be hoped that these subjects will receive 

 the early attention of the officers of the Society. 



In conclusion, gentlemen, allow me to say that in cultivating 

 here the amenities of science, and directing our attention and that 

 of others to the works of God, we are in our humble way doing 

 something for the welfare of this country. We are seeking to 

 mingle the pursuit of merely utilitarian objects in the development 

 of the resources of this country, with higher and more philosophical 

 conceptions of nature. In the midst of many perturbed social and 

 political elements, we are studying things that make for peace, and 

 which are for the common benefit of all. While we are so constant- 

 ly drawing closer the links of connection between ourselves and 

 kindred institutions in other parts of the great empire to which it 

 is our happiness to belong j and while, in common I believe with 

 all scientific men and educators in British America, we feel that 

 it is above all things desirable that still more intimate and mutu- 

 ally helpful relations should be established with the good heart of 

 that empire, so that the political, social, and scientific power of 

 Great Britain may be more strongly felt in these colonies, we can 

 at the same time extend the most earnest sympathy and lively 

 appreciation to the labors of scientific men in other lands, and can 

 more especially ally ourselves in the closest manner with our 

 numerous and able fellow-workers in the United States, who 

 have always been so ready to recognise in our case that bond of 

 brotherhood which should unite all the cultivators of science in 

 every country. 



