PROCEEDINGS FOR 1883. LIL 
expense of authors. For the present, we shall have to exercise the greatest economy in the matter 
of publication, consistently with adequate illustration and respectable appearance. 
Toward the establishment of a National Museum, the Society has been able only to appeal to the 
well-known zeal for science of the officers of the Honorable Hudson’s Bay Company, by a circular 
addressed to them and forwarded to all the posts, through the kindness of Chief Commissioner 
Grahame. The Government has offered us means of storage for the specimens obtained, but much 
more than this is needed. We require means and space for arrangement and display of specimens, 
and to secure the services of active and energetic scientific curators fitted to give real value to the 
specimens which may be collected. These requisites being secured, collections would rapidly accumu- 
late, and we might hope to develope a museum which should ultimately rival that established by the 
United States Government at Washington. The museum thus constituted should have such relations 
with this Society as would enable it to be kept in harmony with the scientific advancement of the 
country, It is scarcely necessary to say that such a museum would not be a mere collection of 
curiosities, but a representation of the aspects of nature and of natural resources throughout the 
Dominion, and a scientific workshop in which able and working specialists would carry out and pub- 
lish researches of practical value to the country. 
A new feature of the present meeting is the presence with us of representative delegates from 
twelve of the more important literary and scientific societies of the Dominion. We rejoice that the 
invitation cordially extended to these older and most useful associations has been accepted by them 
in the spirit in which it was given, and we anticipate much good from this union with us and with 
each other of societies heretofore pursuing their work in comparative isolation. I had occasion to 
remark last year on the intense gratification which I experienced in seeing assembled here so many 
scientific and literary men known to me personally or by reputation, but who had previously been 
unable to meet one another. This year the presence of representatives of our local societies gives 
an additional and gratifying pledge of union. 
On the cordial greetings tendered to us by several of the great societies of the Old World and of 
the United States I need not dwell; but would say a few words with respect to one of them, which 
has asked me to represent it on this occasion, and which has since our last meeting assumed a new, 
and, at that time, unexpected relation to Canada. That the British Association has resolved to 
cast aside the narrower traditions of its early years, and for once to transfer the headquarters of 
British Science to Canadian soil, is a less revolutionary movement than might at first sight appear. 
Several of our leading scientific men have long been members of the Association, and have from time 
to time attended it$ meetings, and the Association, as well as other British societies with which its mem- 
bers are connected, has received many contributions from thiscountry. Of late years also, many British 
scientific men have visited our shores, have received our hospitality, have extensively studied the 
aspects of nature in this country, and have formed personal friendships with our scientific workers. 
The British Association may thus well feel at home in Canada, more especially’since it has been so 
cordially invited by the city of Montreal, and since the Government of the Dominion has, by a timely 
act of liberality, to a great degree removed the difficulty caused by the ocean passage, while the High 
Commissioner of Canada has on his part most earnestly pressed the invitation. That more than four 
hundred members of the Association, including some of its most eminent men, have already signified 
their intention of attending the Montreal meeting, is a gratifying evidence that the spirit of enter- 
prise still lives in the motherland, and that its men of science have confidence in the hospitality of 
Canada. 
This Society will be represented by some of its members at the approaching meeting of the 
Association at Southport, and will, of course, be largely represented at the meeting in 1884; while 
there is good reason to hope that this will also be attended by many scientific men from the United 
States and by some from the continent of Europe. On the whole, there seems to be an assured pros- 
pect that the meeting of the Association in 1884 may not only be successful, but may inaugurate a 
