XC ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
La Verendrye, de Sales and Marquette willexplore the Rocky Moun- 
tains and Mississipi, the father of the waters. 
Dollard des Ormeaux, the Canadian Leonidas, will, after deep afore- 
thought, by solemn covenant, pledge his life and the life of his sixteen 
brave followers, to thrust back the wave of Indian ferocity surging round 
Montreal. 
No poet to sing, no annalist to chronicle the manly deed; all the 
actors, save a Huron brave, perished—he it was who revealed the fact. 
Is not our history also lighted up with the sweet, thoughtful faces of 
heroic women—noble examplars to their sex—beacons from on high, 
illumining the rugged paths of struggling humanity: Madame de 
Champlain, the Lady Latour, Madeleine de Verchéres, Laura Secord ; nor 
is the race extinct. 
I have striven to reveal to you Canadian history in its rude begin- 
nings. You have also had occasion to note its austere and patriotie 
teachings. 
Has your heart not also thrilled at its wild, seductive graces, when 
touched by the wand of that enchanter, Francis Parkman, our late 
lamented colleague ? 
With the wealth of material already garnered in our archives and 
daily added to, may we not count on it, at no distant future, as a stately 
fabric? Shall we compare it to an antique Grecian temple, with graceful _ 
portico and many ornate columns, on which posterity will inscribe among 
other respected names, those of Baron Masères, Wm. Smith, Robert 
Christie, Bibaud, Garneau, Ferland, Faillon, Turcotte, Sulte, Casgrain, 
Bourinot. Withrow, Hannay, Miles, Murdock, Watson, Dent, Brymner, 
Kingsford, Begg, Scadding, Ganong ? 
SESSION IV. (May 16th.) 
The reading of reports of delegates of societies was resumed : 
XXIII.—From The Canadian Institute, Toronto, through Mr. O. A. 
Howtanpb, M.L.A. 
On behalf of the Canadian Institute, I have the honour to communi- 
cate the following report of its proceedings during the past year : 
The forty-sixth annual report of the council was read by the secre- 
tary, Mr. Alan Macdougal, C.E. The council expressed their regret in 
announcing the death of a past president, Mr. Charles Carpmael, M.A., 
F.R.A.S., who died last fall in England. He had been a member for 
sixteen years, many of which were spent as a member of council, and 
during four years he occupied the president’s chair. There were 24 
meetings of the institute, at which 24 papers were read. The attendance 
was well kept up, and was in advance of last session. The biological 
