PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. XIX 



Mr. P. R. Colpitt, the City Electrician, happily explained Wireless 

 Telegraphy, a subject of bewilderment to those whose daily observa- 

 tion led them to suppose a net-work of telegraph and telephone wires 

 was essential to the control of electrical impulses conveying definite 

 signals ; and in this subject local interest has been excited by 

 the selection of Glace Bay, Cape Breton, as the station for transatlan- 

 tic communication. The great trouble to which Mr. Colpitt went to 

 illustrate his subject, and his success, were fully appreciated by his 

 audience. 



Professor E. E. Prince, Commissioner of Fisheries, Ottawa, 

 explained the colors of animals, their nature and meaning, by the aid 

 of numerous lantern slides, which excited general admiration. The 

 apparatus used to show the slides of Professor Prince and Dr. Wood- 

 man was generously supplied and operated by Mr. Jenney. Professor 

 Prince also presented a paper on the Swim Bladder of Fishes, which 

 he described as a degenerate gland. 



Geological subjects furnished the text of several papers : The 

 Meso-Carboniferous Age of the Union and Riversdale Formations of 

 Nova Scotia, and their equivalents the Mispec and Lancaster Forma- 

 tions of New Brunswick, by Dr. Ami, of Ottawa ; a note on Dic- 

 tyonema Websteri, was read by Mr. Poole, of Halifax, who also submitted 

 comments on the question, — Is there coal under Prince Edward Island ? 

 as a companion paper to the otficial report on the allied subject by Dr. 

 Ells, of Ottawa, an otficer of the Geological Survey of Canada. The 

 Geology of Moose River Gold District, N. S., was explained by Dr. 

 Woodman ; and Dr. Gilpin, the Government Inspector of Mines, gave 

 analyses and sections of Nova Scotia coals, and also presented a paper 

 on the Mira Grant. Mr. C. B. Robinson, of Pictou Academy, 

 described a Lichen-mimicing Caterpillar, and also noted the Distrib- 

 ution of Fucus senrdus in Nova Scotia. 



The Kings County Branch of this Institute, under the direction of 

 Professor E. Haycock, of Acadia College, discussed a number of 

 subjects as mentioned in its report on p. xxv. 



APPLICATION OF SCIENCE TO MINING. 



Having been a worker among the mineral products of the province, 

 it is natural for m^ to turn in that direction for matter on which to 

 address vou to-dav. All of us have been constantlv reminded during 



