PROCEEDINGS. li 



Narrows, head of Halifax Harbor, by the Limnoria, read at the March meeting. 

 It is given as supplementary to a paper read in 1882 on the ravages of the Teredo 

 Navalis and Limnoria Lignorum in Nova Scotia. Mr. Hugh McKenzie, Civil 

 Engineer, Moncton, has contributed a photograph of the piles removed from the 

 Narrows Railway Bridge, shewing the extent of their woi kings. This photo- 

 graph is reproduced to illustrate the paper. 



Notes on Nova Scotian Zoology by Mr. Harry Piers is the second contribution 

 from this gentleman on such new and rare interesting occurrences as came within 

 his observation. It treats of birds, reptiles, and fishes captured or found in Nova 

 Scotia. It will be read with much interest. 



VVe are indebted to Mr. Henry M. Ami, M. A., F. G. S., for a catalogue of Sil- 

 urian fossils from Arisaig, Nova Scotia. During the season of 1886, Mr. T. C. 

 Weston, accompanied by Mr. J. A. Robert, made important collections of fossils 

 in the rocks constituting the stratigraphical series at Arisaig along the coast in 

 connection with the geological work entrusted to Mr. Hugh Fletcher, B. A., of the 

 Geological Survey of Canada, and amongst them were several new and hitherto 

 unrecorded forms. 



" On the graphical treatment of the inertia of the connecting rod," is the title 

 of a paper read by Professor J. G. MacGregor, at the .June meeting of the Insti- 

 tute, in which the author points out that in slow-speed steam engines no great 

 error is introduced in calculating the effort of the connecting rod on the crank- 

 pin, on the assumption that the connecting rod is without mass. In high-speed 

 engines, however, a considerable error [is thus introduced ; and it is therefore 

 desirable to have a method of determining the actual effort. The domonstrations 

 are based on certain technical principles that are concise and practical, of 

 geometrical application, and will be found useful to every student studying 

 practical mechanics. 



" The Geology of Nova Scotia — the Lower Silurian"— is the title of a paper 

 read at the May meeting of this Institute by Edwin Gilpin, Jr., Ll. D., Inspector of 

 Mines. In the continuance of Dr. Gilpin's Mork of previous years he follows up 

 his contribution on the Devonian Measures of Cape Breton, with his paper on the 

 Lower Silurian Rocks, He says that between the basal conglomerates of the 

 Carboniferous and the Pre-Cambrian there intervene but a few limited areas 

 referred to the Devonian and Lower Silurian. The extent of these Silurian strata 

 is obscured at many points by the overlying Carboniferous conglomerates, and 

 they rest frequently on the Laurentian. They are not found in the counties of 

 Richmond or Inverness. 



" The Geology of Nova Scotia," by Sir William Dawson, can be largely sup- 

 plemented from the Proceedings of this Institute. The contributions from the 

 late Dr. Honeyman and from Dr. Gilpin cover a large field, and until we have a 

 complete geological survey of Nova S.^otia they will be found to embody the best 

 and most reliable information regarding the mineral resources of the Province. 



In making these observations this evening I have endeavored to point out some 

 of the work that is being done by the Nova Scotian Institute of Science. It would 

 not be difficult to mention other papers, but doubtless they are familiar to all 

 present, and I am afraid I have only been going over old ground, which has 

 already been inore ably trodden by others. I will not, therefore, detain you 



