XX ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA. 



take the matter into consideration, and report to the Society. In tlioir report, the Committee refer 

 to the object as one of the greatest importance to geological science ; they point out the steps that 

 might be taken toward its accomplishment by scientiKc bodies, beginning with the Royal Societ}- of 

 London, the aid that might be given by the Geological Survej' of the Dominion, and the cooperation 

 of this Society, and of those affiliated with it that are engaged in the )irosecution of geological work. 

 Our fourth Section expressed, by resolution, its concurrence in the report and its willingness to aid in 

 any measure taken towards an imperial geological union. The report was adopted by the Society 

 in general session, and the necessary powers were given to the Council to act upon it. The whole 

 subject, including that of international relations, will be again before the Society and the Section 

 more directly concerned, during the present week's meetings. 



In turning to the work of the Sections during the year, as shown in our new (fifth) volume of 

 Transactions, we find that forty-five papers have been printed out of seventy that were read. Maiij' 

 were no doubt retained by the authors for the purpose of being further elaborated or perlected by 

 additional work, a course often suggested hy the discussions that follow the reading of papers in the 

 Sections. Although our publications are not to be valued by their mere number, or the space they 

 occupy, yet it was thought well to call attention, a year ago, to the threatened preponderance — not 

 unlooked for — of papers in the fourth Section, Geological and Biological Sciences, over those of 

 other Sections and especially the French and English Sections of Literature and History. In our 

 new volume, this discrepancy has well nigh disappeared, for, of papers in French Literature and 

 History we have eleven, more than double the number of the previous year, emulating indeed the 

 fertile composite Section of Biology and Geology in bulk of sjjace. In our present year's programme 

 there is a further increase to fourteen French literary papers and eleven English ones, so that appar- 

 ently the contributions of English literature have doubled, and of the French trebled, in the course of 

 two years. On the other hand, the ditticulty of reaching perfection in literary production, where 

 progressive sciences are being dealt with, is illustrated by the fact that, of forty papers submitted and 

 read at our last year's meeting, in the Section for Geology and Biology, only twentj'-one reached the 

 printer's hands. 



As if in deference to the artistic fitness of giving precedence to elegance and beauty, our first Sec- 

 tion is devoted to the French Language, Literature and History, and is regarded more than any other 

 as the repository for productions of a purely literary character. We have not forgotten the anticipa- 

 tion so happily expressed by our Patron when we first entered ujjon our labours. In j)lacing before us 

 the objects aimed at in this institution, the Marquis of Lome told us that " in one division our fellow- 

 countrymen, descended from the stock of Old France, would discuss, with that grace of diction and 

 appreciation of talent which are so conspicuous among them, all that might affect their literature and 

 the maintenance of the purit}- of that grand language from which the English is largely derived." 

 Has not the work of the Section boon a sustained realization of that prediction ? From the first day's 

 meeting. May 25th, 1882, when Messrs. LeMoine and Faucher de Saint Maurice delivered their pie- 

 sidential addresses, we have had from that Section a succession of compositions in poetry and ]jroso, 

 prepared with the greatest care, by such of our fellow members and others as Messrs. Chauveau, 

 Marchand, Suite, Le Maj-, Frechette, Do Cazcs, Legend re, Tremblay, De Celles — need I extend the 

 list?— whilst researches of the most painstaking kind have been undertaken in regard to our earliest 

 Canadian history by Abbé Terreau, Abbé Tanguay, M. Beaudry, and others, leading us back to 

 the very beginnings of European life in Canada', to the original families, the individuals who laid the 

 first foundations of civilization in the country, and to whom the present generation proudly trace back 

 their lineage. In these records, which are being made available to our historians, we have precise, 

 accurate materials for history such as few countries possess, and such as any country may be justl}^ 

 proud of. 



The early history of European life in Canada is not a simple record of peaceful settlement, undis- 

 turbed industry, and merited repose. The storms encountered b}' the first voyagers in crossing the 



