Historical Sketch of Minnesota Academy of Science 435 



Fish Hawk," by W. L. Tiffany, tlie secretary; address on the "Uses 

 of the Misroscope," by Wm. Kilgore, and a paper on "Darwinism,'' 

 by Professor Winchell, who was president for this year (1879.) Al- 

 though this paper on Darwinism, along with Dr. Johnson's inaugural 

 address of this year was evidently lost in the historic Brackett 

 Block fire. Professor Winchell's retiring address closes the first vol- 

 ume of over 400 pages of the Bulletin and is a most valuable docu- 

 ment on the first seven years of the Academy's history on its pur- 

 poses and benefits. It ought to be quoted in full in the present his- 

 torical paper. Besides the men whose names which have appeared 

 as partaking in the Academy's programs there should be mentioned 

 the names of three honored clergymen who took much active in- 

 terest in the Academy, Jas. McGolrick, Henry A. Stimson arid E. S. 

 Williams, the first of whom was the first life member of the Acad- 

 emy, R. J. Mendenhall being the second. 



The year 1880 shows the following intellectual scientific activ- 

 ity: — an inaugural presidential address by Dr. P. L. Hatch, review- 

 ing with his well-known literary originality the work of the Acad- 

 emy a letter from C. E. Whelpley, reporting the discovery of wood 

 and bone at a depth of 300 feet during the boring of a well at Shel- 

 don, lov/a, from which the specimens themselves were also sent; "an 

 evening was devoted to microscopy, ten instruments being present, 

 several of which were described in detail by their owners," and a 

 box of microscopic slides, recently purchased from Mr. John Walker, 

 were evidently used; Professors Peckham and Winchell described 

 successively the various specimens in the fine collections of min- 

 erals presented by Mr, W. A. Morey for the use and benefit of the 

 Academy;" a similar description, with the aid of Professor Hall, of 

 a collection of minerals given by Mr. C. H. DuBois; "A Biographical 

 Notice of a Few of the Fishes of the Falls of St. Anthony," by Mr. 

 Tiffany; a paper on "How the United States Fish Commission Works," 

 by Franklin Benner, who was connected with this work in Maine in 

 1878; an address by Dr. R. J. Taylor of Galesburg, 111., on "The Ro- 

 tary Motion of the Gyroscope," which address was candidly recorded 

 with the characteristic honesty of the secretary, T. S. Roberts, as 

 being of "little force and unscientific;" an article on the "Copper 

 Mines of Lake Superior," by Professor Winchell, who also discuss- 

 ed the mound builders in connection with the ancient copper mines 

 at Isle Royale, and at two later meetings; Mr. Whelpley described 

 the sand and rock layers, which he presented to the Academy, taken 

 from the artesian well at the Was'iburn A mill; Warren Upham 

 "spoke of the glacial terminal moraine, which he had spent his time 

 the past summer and fall in examining, and an article on "Red Lake 

 Notes" was transmitted to the Academy and printed in its bulletin 

 from Miss Franc E. Babbitt of Little Falls, together with her send- 

 ing a box of pottery fragments from this region. In connection 

 with this first mention of a woman in the Academy's proceedings it 

 should have been recorded before that Mrs. F. L. Tinsley, wife of 

 Geo. W. Tinsley, had been elected the first woman member in March, 

 1876. Mrs. Tinsley had presented the Academy a. month before with 

 thirteen mounted bird skins, which she had herself prepared and for 



