118 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [March 



A New American Natural History and Microscopical 

 Society. — There has just been started in the city of Baltimore 

 a society of fifty members, called the " Maryland Academy of 

 Sciences.'' It is intended to pay special attention to microscopy. 

 The following list of the officers may be useful to those societies 

 which desire to correspond with the new Academy : — Philip T. 

 Tyson, President ; John G. Morris, D.D., Vive-President ; 

 Edwin A. Dalrymple, D.D., Corresponding Secretary. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Prof. Bell on the Nipigon Territory. — The Canadian 

 shore of Lake Superior simply varied according to its geological 

 structure, and the prevalence of Laurentian rocks and gneiss of 

 of Huronian rocks. Not only the shore of Lake Superior varied 

 in respect to its physical character, but the country behind it 

 varied also in the same respect. The whole of the Canadian side 

 of Lake Superior could not be called the North Shore, for we had 

 an east side as well ; but at the present time the North Shore 

 was the most important. The basin of Lake Superior was 

 eituated a thousand miles from the sea, its surface being six hun- 

 dred feet above the sea level, or a hundred feet lower than the 

 Montreal mountain. The bottom of the lake was four hundred 

 feet below the sea level, its depth being four times the height of 

 an ordinary church spire. The waters of this basin were kept 

 from flowing over by a rocky rim which enclosed them ; but in 

 speaking of this basin, that of Lake Nipigon should be included 

 at the same time. The Nipigon river was a feeder of Lake 

 Superior, but could not be classified with the smaller feeders of 

 the lake, for it was vastly larger than the other tributaries, and 

 was the only clear water river entering it, and proceeding from a 

 lake which deserved to be considered one of the great lakes, being 

 supplied by sixteen tributaries. The party had left Fort William 

 on the 4th of July last year, and in two or three days arrived at 

 Bed Bock at the mouth of the Nipigon Biver ; and in four days 

 and a half reached the lake, the distance being about 30 miles, 

 in which there were seven portages, some of them about a mile 

 long. The scenery along the Nipigon Biver was very fine ; Bed 

 Bock, at its mouth, being thought by some to be one of the pret- 

 tiest places in Canada, the river itself being unrivalled for trout 

 fishing. Steamboats might pass up the river as far as about ten 



