PliOCEEDlNGS FOI{ 1885. XVll 



SESSION III. {May 21th.) 



The Royal Society again assembled at 10.30 o'clock on Wednesday morning, in the Eailway 

 Committee Eoom, with the President, Dr. T. Sterry Hunt, in the chair. 



Eeports from Affiliated Societies. (Continued.) 

 The reports of delegates from atliliatod societies woi'C continued as follows: — 



VI. From the Natural History Society of Now Brunswick, through Mr. W. F. Best: 



As delegate from the Natural History Society of New Brunswick to the Eoyal Society of Canada, 

 1 have to rejoort that the New Brunswick Society has made considerable advance during the past 

 year. Our membership is larger than ever before, our finances are in a healthy condition — being 

 assisted by a grant from the Local Legislature, — and, as you will notice when I read a list of the 

 papers prepared during the year, the members of the Society have done a great deal of valuable 

 work. The library and collections of the Society have received many important additions during the 

 year, both by donation and purchase. 



The citj^ of St. John — the head(iuarters of our Society — not being a University town, has not the 

 facilities for systematic scientific work which are to be found in connexion with the higher educa- 

 tional institutions. In consequence of this, our Society finds itself obliged to become, to a certain 

 extent, a teaching institution. We have been obliged to gather together books to form a Natural 

 History Libi-aiy, and collections of rocks, minerals, fossils, birds, animals, insects, etc.; and in addi- 

 tion to all this we have found it necessary to undertake courses of elementary .science teaching, in 

 order to train up a new generation of workers in various departments of scientific investigation. 

 In addition to this a Field Club has been organized, which will no doubt do valuable work in 

 the departments of botany, geology, entomology, etc. 



The chief drawback to the progress of the Society in the past has been, that there was only a 

 limited number of active workers. It aflbrds me much pleasure to slate thatseveral interesting papers 

 have been contributed during the past year by gentlemen who had not previously taken an active 

 part in the work of our Society. 



Last summer our annual " camp'' was established at Bocabee, on Passaniaquoddy Bav, and many 

 valuable opportunities wore afforded for the study of marine life as well as for that of the geology 

 and botany of the region. In addition to this, a collection of stone weapons, implements, etc., with 

 pottery and other relics of the Stone Age, was made and subsequently placed in the cabinets of our 

 Society. Our valuable geological collections are now being placed in properly constructed cases, and 

 the insects and birds belonging to the Society have also been ari'anged in glass cases. 



We now consider it desirable that the rooms of the Society should be open to the public on cer- 

 tain days of each week, and arrangements are being made with this in view. A free class in Ele- 

 mentary Chemistry, held in the I'ooms of the Society during the winter, was attended by a large 

 number of enthusiastic students, and the unexpected success of this effort will no doubt induce spe- 

 cialists in other dej)artments of scientific work to undertake similar courses of lectures next winter. 



The original papers read before our Society during the year 1884-5 were as follows : — 



Feb. 5, Discoveries at a Village of the Stone Age at Bocabee, by G. F. Matthew, M.A. 

 Mar. 4, The International Fisheries Exhibition, by Wm. M. McLean. 

 April 1, Gulls, by Fred W. Daniel. 



A Lacustrine Deposit at Fredericton, by W. T. L. Eeed. 

 May 6, The Geology of the Grand Falls, by E. Chalmers. 

 •Tune ?,, Ehizopods, by L. C. Allison, M.D. 

 Sept. 2, The Invertebrate Zoology of Passamaquoddy Bay, by W. F. Ganong. 



. Proc. 1S85. c. 



