1870.] NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 217 



upon these occasions to interest the members, the amount of their 

 response did not accomplish a financial success. The excursion 

 prize was awarded to Miss I. Mcintosh, for a large collection 

 of named species, and juvenile prizes were awarded to Master R. 

 Dawson and G. T. Robinson. Very creditable gatherings were 

 also made by Master R. Lewis and E. P. Peavey. Full reports 

 of these airreeable re-unions will be found in the " jSTaturalist." 



Your Council has accepted the oiFer of our esteemed Curator, 

 Mr. Whiteaves, to deposit his valuable private collection of shells 

 and fossils in the Museum of the Society, for the inspection of 

 members and students, which will add greatly to the attraction of 

 the Society's collection. 



The Council, in retiring, desire to acknowledge the very valu- 

 able services of their active officers, who have carried throuizh the 

 business of the session. 



J. Baker Edwards, 



Chairman. 

 After which, Mr. Whiteaves read the following: — 



REPORT OF THE SCIENTIFIC CURATOR. 



In consequence of the protracted ill health of our taxidermist 

 Mr. Hunter, also, in some measure, from the want of funds, my 

 attention, so far as the Museum has been concerned, has been 

 almost exclusively devoted to the lower animals, and to the 

 Society's collection of fossils. Consequently, not many new 

 mammals or birds have been added during the past session. A fine 

 example each of the Canadian Otter, from Gaspe, and of the 

 White-Bellied Mouse, from Labrador, have been added to our 

 series of mammals. Six weeks, during the past summer, were 

 spent in careful dredging round the peninsula of Gaspe, and the 

 results obtained are of considerable interest and importance. So 

 many specimens were obtained that the whole of the material has 

 not yet been worked up. Commencing with the molluscs, 16 

 species, new to Canada, one of which is new to science, were pro- 

 cured. This jiroup of animals has been very closely studied ; and 

 where there were any doubts about the identification of species 

 the specimens have been sent to the best English authorities. An 

 exhaustive monograph of the sea shells inhabiting the river and 

 gulf of the St. Lawrence, has been published in the last volume 

 of the "Canadian Naturalist." In it 118 marine Bhells and 5 

 naked molluscs are described as inhabiting the seas of Canada, 



Vol. V. () Xo. 2. 



