ANNALS OF AN OLD SOCIETY. Ô1 



interesting to science, may, in some degree, be worthy of yovxr notice." Proceeding to 

 place the subject of his paper before his audience in the light of the historical era previous 

 to the erection of the Sovereign Council of Quebec in 1G63, he speaks of the period when 

 the laws of France, as they had been administered in the tribunals of the Comte de Paris, 

 became the common law of Lower Canada. His paper, the first ever published by the 

 Society, is full of research, as the copious notes and references readily show. The interest 

 of Canadians is specially excited by a perusal of the latter part of the thirty-six closely 

 printed pages, in which the connection between church and state and the function of 

 ecclesiastical law are carefully explained. In every page, there is a clear indication of the 

 extent of the author's juridical information. The arrangement is excellent, and the 

 style dignified and fluent. Nor did the lecturer forget the occasion of his address while 

 pointing out its utility. His closing sentences foreshadow the progress that has been 

 made in the studj^ of the law of Canada within the last fifty years, while affording to 

 us, who read them now, an instructive glimpse of the course of a }'oung lawyer previous 

 to 1824. 



The second paper published in the Transactions is one on the geology of Lake Superior 

 by Henry Bayfield, Commander in the Royal Navy. Commander Bayfield was a resident 

 of Quebec from 1827 to 1841, when he removed to Charlottetown. The story of his life is 

 full of incident. After an experience of several important naval engagements, he was 

 finally placed in command of a gunboat for service on the Canadian lakes at the close of 

 the American War of 1812-14, where for ten years he was engaged in making a survey of 

 the largest of them. And the i:)aper, whit'h follows Chief- Justice Sewell's, shows how care- 

 fully he performed his duties. He was not the first to A'isit the great lake with a view to 

 geological investigation, and to those who preceded him, he gives credit for their enter- 

 prise. He claimed, however, to be the only person who had circumnavigated the lake 

 or visited all its bays and islands, in order to trace the formations from shore to shore. 

 Two years ago, Admiral Bayfield passed away at the ripe age of ninety, having li^'ed almost 

 beyond the recollection of the world in which he was at one time a man of mark, and 

 little noticed at the time of his death except by those living in his immediate vicinity. 

 During his residence in Quebec, he put forth every effort to foster the interests of the 

 Literary and Historical Society, finding the time, notwithstanding his onerous duties, to 

 write several papers to be read before its members. 



Next in order of publication to Admiral Bayfield's paper, is one by Andrew Stuart on 

 Saguenay County, — a paper greatly enhanced in A^alue, when read in conjunction with 

 one which follows it, on the geognosy of the same district, by Lieutenant Baddeley of the 

 Royal Engineers. The paper on the Saguenay was not the only contribution Mr. Stuart 

 read before the Society. He wrote subsequently an account of the " Ancient Etruscans " 

 and an essay entitled " Detached Thoughts upon the History of Civilization," both of 

 which indicate the extent of their author's reading, the keenness of his judgment, and his 

 powers of observation. 



Among the contents of the first issue of the Transactions are two papers by Captain 

 Bonuycastle, one entitled "Observations on a few of the Rocks- and Minerals of Upper 

 Canada," and the other on " Meteorological Phenomena observed in Canada." "William 

 Sheppard makes some " Observations on the American plants described by Charlevoix ;" 

 Mrs. Sheppard writes of " The recent Shells which characterize Quebec and its Environs," 



