II ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



REPORT OF COUNCIL. 



Tho Council of the Royal Society of Canada have the honour to 

 ])rescnt their seventeenth Report, as follows : 



1. I'liE New Governor-(ieneral Accepts the Honorary Presidency. 



During the month of April the President waited upon the present 

 Governor-General the Earl of Minto, and formally asked liim to become 

 ] I onorarj' President of the society, in accordance with the constitution. 

 His Excellency was pleased to accept the position held for so manj^ years 

 to the advantage of the society by his distinguished predecessors, the 

 ^farquess of Loi^ne, the Marquess of Lansdowne, Lord Stanley, and the 

 Earl of Aberdeen. 



2. Printing of Transactions. 



The fourth volume of the new series has been printed and bound 

 earlier than usual this spring, and is now in the course of distribution. 

 In addition to 125 pages of Minutes of Proceedings, it contains 28 papei-s 

 in the four sections, making in the aggregate 785 pages, or about 220 less 

 than the exceptionally large volume of the new series, which contained 

 the elaborate account of the celebration at Halifax in honour of John 

 Cabot. Authors have received, free of all charges, 3,200 copies of their 

 papers in the ordinary pamphlet form. The volume contains a con- 

 siderable number of maps, diagrams and illustrations — 47 in all — chiefly 

 in connection with the President's address on the St. Lawrence naviga- 

 tion. On this account the volume has been more expensive than the 

 Printing Committee expected. The illustrations, as usual, have been 

 done at the cheapest possible rate, under the supervision of Dr. Dawson, 

 Queen's Printer, who has always kept carefully in view excellence in 

 execution. The printing accounts have been carefully audited by the 

 officials of the Government Printing Bureau, to the decided advantage of 

 the society. 



The following is a statement of the financial condition of the society 

 to the date of raeetinfc : 



