PEOCEEDINGS FOE 1892. XV 



"The committee observed that Dr. Bourinot had ordered an extra niiraber to be printed of his 

 paper, in Section II., on Cape Breton, and they recommend that, as this paper is an extremely vahiablo 

 contribution to a much neglected portion of the history of the Dominion, and as a recognition, more- 

 over, of the innumerable services of the writer to the Society as its Honorary Secretary from its 

 organization, these extra three hundred copies be presented to him." 



The following letter from Dr. Samuel E. Dawson, the publisher from the commencement of the 

 publication of the ' Transactions ' in 1883-4, will show some of the difficulties that have impeded the 

 appearance of the work, and the additional responsibilities that will henceforth devolve on the society 

 on account of the inability of the gentleman in question, now (Queen's Printer, to give his invaluable 

 aid to the society in future : — 



" Ottawa, May 24th, 1892. 

 "Dr. J. G. Bourinot, C.M.G., Royal Society. 



" Dear Sie, — I send you herewith a book in which I have given in full detail the entire distribu- 

 tion of the ' Transactions,' with addresses. I also give a complete statement of the stock on hand, 

 and where it is stored, with details of insurance. 



" As my position as Queen's Printer precludes me from having any interest in the publication of 

 the ' Transactions,' I shall not be able to attend to the issue of the future volumes. I have attended 

 to the passing of the present volume through the press because it was half done at the time of my 

 appointment, and there was no one to take up the threads of the correspondence or who knew of the 

 traditions of the work. It would otherwise have fallen into confusion. 



" I would remark that at no previous time in the history of the Society did the papers come in so 

 late, or did I have so much difficulty in getting the volume out in time. In previous j'ears a single 

 paper may have retarded the issue, but this year every section was delayed. A number of papers 

 came in during November and one in March had to bo excluded. There seemed also to be more than 

 the usual delay with the proofs, and the standing matter sometimes ran up to 290 or more pages of 

 quarto in tyj)e. Very few offices could supply so long a font of type, and that is a chief difficulty in 

 getting out the volume. 



"Illness unfortunately prevented the Abbé Verreau from continuing his paper beyond the first 

 chapter. I wished to carry on the Abbé Cuoq's Algonquin Gi'ammur a little further, but to have 

 done so would have caused the volume to miss its date. A paper in Section III. is standing in galley 

 and could not be included. I send you the proofs, which will speak for themselves. Setting up such 

 papers is very costly and tedious, but such alterations as these are extravagant in the highest degree. 

 It would be easier to set all the matter anew if clean copy could be had. Algebraic matter, of all 

 others, requires fair copy. This paper when I first saw it I estimated would make 4 pages, but it has 

 grown in proof to three times that size. Two galleys of another paper in this section are also 

 standing, for it came some time in March and was not sent to me but to the printer. I did not know 

 of it until I came to close the volume and found there was not time to include it. I think that the 

 rule which requires all papers to be sent in before September and sent through the Secretary of the 

 section, is not so widely known as it should be. A publisher should have an idea of the approximate 

 size of the volume he is undertaking, if for no other reason than because the paper must be provided 

 at one making, so as to have the colour and quality uniform throughout. 



" If you will pardon me, I will suggest that in future the despatch of the volumes to distant parts 

 should be done at Ottawa. I do not believe it possible to obtain in any business place the painstaking 

 and laborious accuracy which that requires. I have alvrays done that work with my own hands. 

 Above all things the most vexatious is to have a parcel for South America sent to Australia or one 

 for Xew Zealand to Russia. The distribution covers the civilized world, and any inaccuracy would 

 entail an intolerable amount of correspondence to ascertain what mistake really had been made, and 

 considerable expense to rectify it. The distribution for the older provinces of Canada might be 



