214 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [June 



this subject that the committee have already taken steps in the 

 matter, which may be safely left in their hands for a successful 

 issue, and should — which is by no means impossible — the Govern- 

 ment decline to allow our investigators a free passage in one of 

 their ordinary cruisers, it will then become the duty of this 

 Society to decide whether they themselves will provide the 

 necessary means for the investigations contemplated by the 

 resolutions, which would really not involve a very large ex- 

 penditure. 



I have already detained you so long, that I must leave for 

 some other occasion a few minor topics on which I had proposed 

 to say a few words. Permit me, before sitting down, to ask your 

 earnest attention to the important matters referred to in the 

 reports about to be read, and your cordial co-operation, not merely 

 with reference to the details of those reports, but in all that can 

 subserve the interests of the Natural History Society, and verify 

 and realize its motto^ — Tandem fit sijrculus arbor. 



The Chairman of the Council (Dr. J. Baker Edwards, F.C.S.,) 

 then submitted the following : — 



REPORT OF THE COUNCIL, 



3Iay, 1870. 



In reviewing the scientific work of the past Session, your Coun- 

 cil feel it especially due to the active members of the Society to 

 recognize the valuable contributions placed on the Society's record, 

 and which they believe will be found equal, both in value and 

 general interest, to those of any preceding session. 



Your Council have felt increasingly, of late years, the desir- 

 ability of popularizing the proceedings of the Society as much as 

 possible, so as to interest a larger number of members in the 

 objects. To accomplish this they have established field meetings ; 

 invited ladies to join the Society as associate members; added 

 to the attraction of the annual Conversaziones ; secured more 

 comfortable accommodation for their guests ; and popularized the 

 character of their scientific periodical, '' The Canadian Naturalist." 



They cannot but feel, however, that the response to their efi"orts 

 has been but of a partial character, and much has yet to be 

 done to establish that ^^ entente cordiale" — that ^^ corps cC esprit^ ^ 

 amongst the members which actually prevails in European socie- 

 ties of a like nature. 



