X ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



so as to settle what Canada must do for itself."' At the meeting last 

 year (1904) in St. John, IST.B., a resolution concerning the desired sur- 

 vey was again passed by the Society in general meeting, and the com- 

 mittee was reappointed to continue its eli'orts. 



In consequence of this, the chairman of the committee, after con- 

 sultation with the shipping interest of Montreal in January last, asked 

 for an interview with the Hon. E. Préfontaine in Montreal, if possible. 

 The Minister of ]\Iarine, unable to be present himself, deputed Mr. J. 

 W. Stewart, Chief Hydrographer for Canada, to meet the committee 

 and representati\ ei of the Shipping Federation, and also of the Board 

 of Trade of Montreal, on January 26, in order "to talk over the ques- 

 tion, with a view to reporting thereon to the Minister for his informa- 

 tion and such action as he may deem necessary." 



From the discussion that took place at the meeting, the committee 

 has great reason to hope that the labours of the Society, in collecting- 

 evidence from hydrographers, shipmasters, scientific men, and associa- 

 tions specially interested in navigation and commerce, and in present- 

 ing this evidence to successive Ministers of Marine and Cabinets have 

 not been fruitless, and that the eiïorts of the Society, which, at the 

 end of six years, secured the Tidal Survey, will now, after twenty-one 

 years, be crowned with complete success. And not too soon — the 

 mere statement that when the Society began its efforts (knowing the 

 need at the time), the largest vessels coming to the St. Lawrence were 

 of about 5,000 tons, and that next year there will be some of 14,500 tons, 

 shows how quickly the urgency of the need is growing, and may in- 

 dicate the value in one direction of a society such as ours; for it seems 

 quite certain that without the existence of some such society the con- 

 tinuous presentment of claims of this kind to attention could hardly 

 have been made, and the loss to the country would be greater. 



It is only right that we should as a society here acknowledge how 

 much we are indebted, not only to the Board of Trade and shipping 

 interest of Montreal, and to other Boards of Trade in the Dominion 

 for their support, but also to the British Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science for its co-operation. When that association decided 

 to extend its sphere of action beyond the British Islands, and give 

 itself an imperial character, it came first to Canada. The mom])ers 

 were at the time investigating the problem of the tides in all parts 

 of the world, and the very question in which we are interested was, in 

 its tidal form, submitted to them before it was presented to the Eoyal 

 Society of Canada, which was then in its infancy. 



It was promptly taken up, not only as part of their own inquiry. 

 but as of practical value to the country which had so warmly welcomed 

 their visit. Some of the most eminent members were appointed a 



