LXII EOYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA. 



This expression may serve as a general indication of the scope of the work lying before the 

 Experimental Farms, but in order to show more clearly into how many branches this work may 

 ultimately divide itself, it may further be noted that in the volume just alluded to reports are 

 contained from the chief of a buieau of animal industry, a chemist, an entomologist, an ornithologist, 

 a mammalogist, a botanist, a chief of division of pathology, a pomologist, a microseopist, a chief of 

 division of forestry, a special agent in charge of fibre investigations and a chief of seed division, 

 besides executive and some other special reports. All these lines of investigation and more, are 

 equally important to the agricultural industry in Canada, and while it may no doubt be some time 

 before the area to be covered can be divided under so many separate heads, it will obviously conduce to 

 the value of the results to place each branch of the work as far as possible in the hands of some 

 trained specialist. 



Before concluding this brief review of the several branches of scientific research or work carried 

 on by the government, allusion must be made to several comparatively late undertakings of this 

 nature begun under the auspices of the Department of Marine and Fisheries. 



Under the name of the "Georgian Bay Survey," a hydrogi'aphic survey of the Canadian portion 

 of the Gieat Lakes was begun in 1883, and several excellent charts of the northern part of Lake 

 Huron have already been published. The outline of the northern shores of the Great Lakes had up 

 to this time depended on old surveys by Admiral Bayfield, which, though exceedingly good as 

 reconnaissance work, have long ceased to be up to the requirements of the increased and increasing 

 navigation of these waters. As many parts of our sea coasts, both on the Atlantic and Pacific si<le, 

 should now also be recharted and more accurately laid down, it is to be hoped that this hydrographie 

 survey maj' be continued and extended. An able plea for the establishment of a regular h3'drographic 

 survey was, it will be remembered, laid before this Society by Prof. Johnson at the last meeting. 



When the British Association for the Advancement of Science met in Montreal in 1884, a com- 

 mittee of that body which had for many years been engaged on tidal determinations, interested itself 

 in the extension of such observations to Canadian waters, and a joint committee of the Associa- 

 tion and of the Royal Socieiy of Canada was formed, by which the importance of such observations, 

 made systematically and with modern appliances of accuracy, was urged upon the government. In 

 1890, a beginning was made in this work, and provision has since been made for its continuation and 

 extension. The carrying out of such tidal and current observations cannot fail in the near future to 

 produce practical results of the greatest importance to shipping, particularly in the gulf of St. 

 Lawrence, where a want of proper knowledge of the currents has already often led to great loss. The 

 investigation is essentially a scientific one, iuvolving questions of considerable intricacy, but its 

 outcome should be the formulation of plain and definite rules which may serve as a guide to the 

 navigator. 



Another promising departui'c is the initiation of a scientific study of that most important element 

 in the wealth of the country, the fisheries. Much has already been done in Canada in the matter of 

 the propagation of food fishes, but much yet remains to be done in investigating the conditions of the 

 fisheries of both salt and fresh waters, and it may now be anticipated that before man}' years an 

 important basis of fact will have been built up upon tiiis subject. 



So far, I have spoken chiefly of the scientific enterprises under the control of the general gov- 

 ernment, but it must not be omitted to mention that several at least of the provincial governments 

 have contributed their share towards the encouragement of scientific research. This has been done 

 very often by according annual grants to the local scientific societies, and in Nova Scotia and in 

 British Columbia by the initiation of provincial museums. It is to be hoped that none of the prov- 

 inces will long remain without such a museum. Again, in several of the provinces mining depart- 

 ments exist, which though chiefly occupied with economic details and statistics, occasionally attbrd 

 some contribution to the scientific basis upon which all such work must rest. 



