Ivi PROCEEDINGS. 



First Ordinary Meetinc;, Province Building, Halifax, 8tli November, 1893. 

 Dr. MacKay, Vice-President, in the Chair. 

 Inter alia, 

 Professor J. G. MacGregor read a paper entitled : " On the Isothermal and. 

 Adiabatic Expansion of Gases." 



Second Ordinary Meeting, Province Building, Halifax, 11th December, 1893- 



The President /;? the Chair. 



Liter alia, 



Dr. J. Somers read a paper entitled : "Notes on Native Forms of Juniperus- 

 and Lanius Borealis." 



Principal Marshall, of Richmond, N. S. , made a statement of facts with regard 

 to what appeared to be a shower of worms. He said : — 



In the spring of 1890, while residing in Middleton, Annapolis Co., I observed 

 one morning after a shower of rain with high wind from the south-east, that 

 there were abouc two dozen earth worms in a molasses cask which was standing: 

 so as to catch the water from a spout that was connected with a trough placed 

 under the eaves of the barn. I had been to the cask for water several times the 

 day before and had not noticed them there, and I felt sure that they could not 

 have crawled in over the side of the cask, for it was 3 ft. 8 in. high. I got a 

 ladder and climbed to the roof to see if there was any dirt in the trough in which 

 they might have lived until brought down by the rain. I did not find any earth 

 in which they might have lived, but 1 found more than a dozen worms sticking 

 to the roof with one end dried fast to the shingles as if they had struck against 

 it with some force and had been partly crushed and killed. When I came down 

 from the roof I examined the wall and found several worms crushed against it. 

 They were on the middle and western part of the wall and roof. I could not dis- 

 cover any on the eastern end, nor on other buildings standing on that side of the 

 barn. There were no buildings at the western end, so I could not determine 

 where, in that direction the limit would have been, if there had been a wall to 

 receive them. As it was they were scattered over a wall about fourteen feet 

 square, and over the side of a roof fourteen feet long and twelve wide. The 

 soil to the south of the barn is sandy and nearly all covered with a grass sod. 

 There were no large trees near the building. 



The President, Prof. G. Lawson, read a paper entitled : " Remarks on Some 

 Features of the Kentucky Flora." 



On motion of Prof. J. G. MacGregor and Dr. A. H. MacKay the following 

 resolution was passed : — Resolved, That the Council be instructed to address a 

 memorial to the Dominion Government setting forth the advantages of low postal 

 rates on natural history specimens, both in facilitating the progress of the vari- 

 ious departments of natural history and in making known the natural resources of 

 the country, and praying the said Government to take steps to secure throughout 

 Canada and the postal nnion the same rate of postage on scientific specimens as- 

 is at present provided for in the case of samples of merchandise. 



