XVlll PROCEEDINGS. 



public meetings on various subjects, where his fine presence and 

 pleasing address always commanded attention. Almost from the 

 inception of this Institute, he took an active interest in its welfare, 

 and until the day of his death continued to fill the important office of 

 Treasurer. 



In the loss of Mr. A. Cameron, the Institute is deprived of a con- 

 tributor of exceptional ability on astronomical subjects, and provincial 

 education, an acknowledged leader of the sort his country, Scotland, is 

 so proud, and which has so often made a mark in the outer world 



THE institute's WORK. 



During the late session, in addition to papers of the usual class 

 that are read before us, we had meetings where the subject matter 

 was, to a large extent, popularized by illustrations, models and dia- 

 grams that appealed to tlie eye. 



Major English, R. G. A., who ranks among those of the service 

 who have made a special study of guns and gunnery, explained very 

 clearly, by blackboard and model, the advances in this direction that 

 have of late made such strides. At the same time he showed how several 

 branches of pure science, mathematics, chemistry, and metallurgy have 

 been applied to practical account, and with a precision of result that 

 is surprising to a civilian. Interest in his subject was excited at 

 the time by press criticisms on the relative merits of the guns employed 

 during the late Boer War. 



Dr. A. H. MacKay, our President for many years, by ready free- 

 hand drawing on the blackboard, and by specimens, described typical 

 members of our native Fungi, while reading a paper on the subject 

 from Mr. R. R. Gates, of Mt. Allison University, a promising student 

 of this class of plants. He, at the same time, presented a summary of 

 the species already identified as Nova Scotian. He also submitted a 

 series of Phenological Observa ions conducted in 1002, in continuation 

 of those of several previous years. The full series, now covering 

 many years, should shortly enable deductions to be drawn of local 

 variations of climate that will prove of much value. 



Dr. Woodman, Professor of Geology at Dalhousie College, and who 

 has lately brought among us the advanced views of Harvard Univer- 

 sity, entertained us and our friends by exhibiting slides of geolo^dcal 

 .structure in the Rocky Mountains. 



