CXVI ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
Members. 
The club has now a membership of three hundred and nineteen, 
composed of three hundred and eleven ordinary members and eight cor- 
responding members. 
Soirées. 
A most successful course of lectures was held during the winter, 
at which addresses were given by the president, Mr. W. J. Wilson, Dr. 
Jas. Fletcher, Rev. Mr. Hifrig, Mr. D. A. Campbell, Dr. P. H. Bryce, 
Dr. R. A. Daly, Professor Lochhead and Dr. H. M. Ami. In addition 
to these Mr. Ernest Thompson Seton, a valued member of the club, 
very kindly gave an illustrated lecture on Animal Minds and Heroes, 
on the evening of February 16th, before an audience that completely 
filled the large Assembly Hall of the Normal School. Mr. Seton held 
his audience in the closest attention for a space of an hour and three- 
quarters while he described the famous heroes of animal history. To 
quote from a lengthy press notice, “ Delivered with fire of oratory, and 
enlightened with frequent flashes of the keenest wit, the address was 
one of the best heard in Ottawa for many years.” 
Excursions. 
Nine sub-excursions and three general excursions were held during 
the year. The former were held on Saturday afternoons to interesting 
points adjacent to the city and the latter sometimes occupied the whole 
day when more remote localities were visited. 
The club regards its excursions as the strongest means of awakening 
public interest in its work and enlisting new members. ‘This year, 
special efforts had been put forth to make the excursions as successful 
as possible, but an unusual number of rainy Saturdays interfered with 
the plans of the club. When weather conditions were favourable, how- 
ever, the excursions were well attended, and much gooa work was done, 
as appears in the reports of the excursions published from time to time 
in The Ottawa Naturalist. The snowshoe tramps have shown that a 
great deal of field work can be carried on in winter. The botanists, 
for example, observed at Beaver Meadow the distribution of evergreens 
and deciduous trees, the occurrence of species easily passed by unnoticed 
in summer, the branching of deciduous trees, the persistent fruit of 
the Climbing Bittersweet, the characteristic winter appearance of the 
Juniper, various methods of bud-protection, and many other interesting 
features of winter vegetation. A continuance of field work in winter 
would be certain to reveal many things to which attention has not yet 
been directed because of the unfamiliarity of people in cities with woods 
in winter. 
