Ixxxvi PROCEEDINGS. 



WORK. 



We have also lost the presence of Professor James Gordon 

 MacGregor from our midst by his translation from the University of 

 Dalhousie College to the Professorship of Natural Philosophy in the 

 University of Edinburgh. He has been a member of this Institute 

 from the year 1877, since which time he has served in all of the most 

 important offices with a vigor which has transformed the institution 

 in many respects. Not only did he furnish many valuable papers for 

 our Transactions, but he prepared students who, during the last few 

 years, added most important records of original scientific research to 

 our list of valuable papers. And not only did he do these things, but 

 he spent yearly a great deal of time in developing our foreign 

 exchanges and laying the foundation of our present Provincial Scien- 

 tific Library. Although not likely to be with us at our meetings, 

 Professor MacGregor has put too mnch of himself into our Institute 

 not to continue to be interested in its progress, and disposed to work 

 with us still. The banquet tendered him on his departure for the 

 " motherland " by this Institute, combined with the University of 

 Dalhousie, was a public testimony to his services, and I am glad that 

 the Council has added another small testimony in unanimously electing 

 him to life membership, which we trust may be a very long member- 

 ship. 



At our regular meetings during the year quite a variety of 

 subjects was discussed, the more valuable papers of which will soon 

 appear in the volume of the Proceedings and Transactions. Mr. Poole 

 described the new Calyx Drill; and exhibited specimens of the great 

 cores of rock cut out by it, and at a subsequent meeting presented for 

 examination a transverse section of Stigmaria, showing the cellular 

 structure of its central vascular bundles with extraordinary distinct- 

 ness. The excellence of the preservation of this structure makes its 

 description a valuable one for the palaeontologist. Mr. Prest utilized 

 his expedition to the Labrador coast by giving us a vivid picture of 

 his observations on Drift Ice as an Eroding and Transporting Geologi- 

 cal Agent. Mr. Weatherbe demonstrated the latest explorations in 

 the Torbrook Iron District. Mr. Fletcher discussed the nomenclature 

 of our geological formations, taking in the New Glasgow Conglomer- 

 ates this time one of the most interesting of the series on the histor- 



