EIGHTH ORDINARY MEETING. 53 
EIGHTH ORDINARY MERTING. 
The Eighth Ordinary Meeting of the Session 1883-’84 was 
held on Saturday, December 22nd, 1883, the President in the 
chair. 
The minutes of last meeting were read and confirmed. 
The following gentlemen were elected members of the 
Institute :— 
H. H. Langton, B.A., Charles Miles, C.E., S. George Curry, Architect. 
The following exchanges were announced : 
1. Annual Report of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College 
for 1882-'83. 
2. Science, Vol. 2, No. 45, December 14, 1883. 
. Monthly Weather Review for November, 1883. 
4. Report of the Superintendent of the United States Coast and Geodetic 
Survey for the year ending June, 1881. 
wo 
Mr. Alan Macdougall, C.E, F.R.S.E., read a paper en- 
titled :— 
CANADIAN CATTLE TRADE AND ABATTOIRS. 
The dependence of Britain on foreign or extraneous sources for 
much of its food supplies has led to the formation of numerous in- 
dustries all over the world, and especially on the North American 
Continent. For its bread-stuffs it may be said to be wholly depend- 
ent on the United States, as the quantities sent over from there 
entirely dwarf the receipts from European countries. Out of the 
amount exported to Europe, Britain receives 75 per cent. of the 
wheat, and 90 per cent. of the flour and corn. The wheat crop in 
1880 a failure in most of the European countries was a surprisingly 
abundant one in the States, and it is due to this that many of these 
countries were saved from starvation. 
As the intercourse between Britain and her colonies has increased 
closer trade relations have been established, and with none have 
these relations grown to greater bulk than with our Dominion. Our 
export of bread-stuffs are assuming gratifying proportions, year by 
year they increase, and year by year the tmportance of our magnifi- 
cent waterways grow in like magnitude. Our exports of bread-stuffs 
