1 PROCEEDINGS. 



in Queens County, and at Port Mouton. Similar phenomena are also referred to 

 relating to evidences of subsidence along the sea coast of Prince Edward Island, 

 where peat bogs and forests are being slowly engulfed by the ever-advancing sea. 

 The visibility of Venus to the naked eye is the subject of a paper contributed 

 by Prnicipal A. Cameron, of Yarmouth. If one has no telescope nor any other 

 optical instrument, except the naked eye, on how many days of the year can he 

 see Venus ? is the question which forms the subject of the paper. The author 

 points out that while her elongation is changing, her brilliancy is changing also, 

 and that at her greatest elongation she is three times as bright as at superior con- 

 junction ; but this does not mean that it is only three times as easy to see her in the 

 former position as in the latter, as it is much more easy to do so. No eye can see 

 her in one case, and no eye can fail to see her in the other. A standard is 

 selected for convenience in terms of which to express her different brilliancies. 

 He takes for this her greatest brilliancy, as it always would be if both she and the 

 earth were always at their mean distance, and if the reflective powers of all 

 parts of the surface of Venus were equal and constant, and he uses the number 

 100 as the value of this greatest brilliancy. The actual brilliancy at any 

 moment depends on several conditions, some physical and others geometricnl. Of 

 the physical conditions, too little is known to be able to make them the subjects 

 of calculation, but from the geometrical conditions, can be calculated the relative 

 theoretical brilliancy for any position in her orbit. These geometrical conditions 

 are three in number, — the distance of the planet from the earth and the phase of 

 the planet ; that is, the illuminated part of its disc. To get a general idea of the 

 changes in Venus's brilliancy he supposed her to be always at her mean distance 

 from the sun, and then the changes will depend only on her distance from the 

 earth and her phase. The paper will be found interesting to others as well as the 

 star gazers throughout, and is given in a pleasant readable manner. It is to be 

 hoped that Principal Cameron will give us the second part of his paper which he 

 speaks of in his closing remarks, viz. : — The visibility of Venus to the naked eye 

 in daylight. 



The fourth paper, read at the December meeting, gives a list of localities for trap 

 minerals in Nova Scotia by the late Revd. Thomas McCulloch, D. D., President 

 and Professor of Moral Philosophy and Rhetoric in Dalhousie University. A note 

 attached by Professor George Law^son, Ph. D., L.L. D., will explain its history. 

 It is as follows : — "This is a very old list, and was found recently among the 

 Museum specimens of the McCulloch collection, presented to Dalhousie College 

 by the Revd. William McCulloch, D. D., of Truro. The original manuscript 

 bears neither date nor author's name, but, on its being forwarded to Revd. Dr. 

 W. McCulloch to ascertain if it was in his father's handwriting, he replied : ' You 

 are right about the document enclosed. I had given it up as lost. It is in my 

 father's hand though the work was the joint labour of my father and brother, 

 Thomas, running over years.'" Although this paper is from an old manu- 

 script it is no less interesting. It embraces lists of the principal trap 

 minerals m hich may be collected along the North Mountain from Little River, 

 St. Mary's r)ay, to Five Islands, and must have been the result of much labor 

 and diligent research. 



The next contribution is by the President on the destruction of piles at the 



