196 



NA TURE 



[August 26, 1897 



throughout America, the result being that in tlie thirteen 

 years which have elapsed since the meeting took 

 place, America has come to the front as a nation 

 which fosters scientific work, and a country which 

 contributes a very large share to the world's wealth of 

 natural knowledge. 



Twelve hundred members and associates attended the 

 meeting at Toronto, about four hundred being from Great 

 Britain. The proceedings were opened on Wednesday, 

 August 18, by a meeting of the General Committee, 

 Avhen the annual report of the Council for presentation 

 to the Association was read. From the Times we learn 

 that the report states that the Council has nominated 

 Sir Donald Smith, Mr. A. S. Hardy, Premier of Ontario, 

 and the Mayor of Toronto as Vice-Presidents of the 

 Association, and regret is expressed at the decision of 

 Mr. Vernon Harcourt to retire from the General Sec- 

 retaryship of the Association. A warm tribute is paid to 

 him for the invaluable services he has rendered in that 

 capacity during the past fourteen years, and Prof 

 Roberts-Austen is recommended for appointment as his 

 successor. Mention is made of the fact that the 

 Imperial Government, at the request of the Association, 

 has appointed a committee to report upon the desirability 

 of establishing a National Physical Laboratory. The 

 report states further that the Trustees of the British 

 Museum have under consideration the Association's 

 suggestion for the establishment of a Bureau of Eth- 

 nology of Greater Britain in connection with the Museum. 

 The Corporation of Glasgow has forwarded an invitation 

 for the annual meeting of the Association to be held in 

 that city in 1901. 



The annual report of the Treasurer shows the finances 

 of the Association to be in a flourishing condition, the 

 balance in hand being 1396/. The amount to be 

 granted for various scientific investigations is about 

 1200/. 



The sectional work began on Thursday morning, and 

 the presidents of the various sections, with the exception 

 of Anthropology and Botany, delivered their addresses. 

 Two of the sectional addresses were printed in full in 

 last week's Nature, and also the President's address. 

 We print this vveek the complete addresses delivered 

 before the sections of Geology, Zoology, and Mechanical 

 Science, and shall follow these with others. We have 

 arranged for our usual reports of the work of the sections, 

 and shall insert them as soon as possible after they are 

 received. 



On Friday last there was a special Convocation of 

 Toronto University, under the presidency of the Vice- 

 Chancellor, the Hon. William Mulock, to confer the 

 honorary degree of Doctor of Laws upon Lord Kelvin, 

 Lord Lister, Sir John Evans, and Mr. Hardy (Premier of 

 Ontario). The University has also conferred the same 

 honorary degree upon Lord Rayleigh, Prof Wolcott 

 Gibbs, and Sir Wilfrid Laurier. At a Convocation of 

 Trinity University on Tuesday, the honorary degree of 

 D.C.L. was conferred upon Lord Kelvin, Lord Lister, Sir 

 John Evans, Mr. Bryce, and Sir George Robertson. 



The feature of Friday last was a brilliant discourse 

 delivered by Prof Roberts-Austen, C.B., F.R.S., on 

 "Canada's Metals." At the close of the lecture, which 

 was illustrated by numerous striking experiments, a vote 

 of thanks was proposed by Dr. George Dawson, and 

 seconded by Sir Charles Fremantle. 



A lecture to operatives was given by Dr. Henry O. 

 Forbes on Saturday, upon the subject of " British New 

 Guinea : the Country and its People, with some Account 

 of the Problems which the Region offers to the Naturalist 

 and the Geographer." The Mayor of Toronto, Mr. 

 Shaw, presided, and a large audience attended. On 

 Monday, Prof. John Milne, F.R.S., discoursed upon 

 " Earthquakes and Volcanoes," the President, Sir John 

 Evans, being in the chair. 



NO. 1452, VOL. 56] 



SECTION C. 



GEOLOGY. 



Opening Address by G. M. Dawson, C.M.G., LL.D., 

 F.R.S., F.G.S., President of the Section. 



The nature and relations of the more ancient rocks of North 

 America are problems particularly Canadian, for these rocks in 

 their typical and most easily read development either constitute 

 or border upon the continental Protaxis of the North. The 

 questions involved are, however, at the same time, perhaps 

 more intimately connected with a certain class of world-wide 

 geological phenomena than any of those relating to later for- 

 mations, in which a greater degree of differentiation occurred 

 as time advanced. A reasonably satisfactory classification of 

 the crystalline rocks beneath those designated as Paleozoic was 

 first worked out in the Canadian region by Logan and his col- 

 leagues, a classification of which the validity was soon after 

 generally recognised. The greatest known connected area of 

 such rocks is embraced within the borders of Canada, and, if I 

 mistake not, the further understanding of the origin and char- 

 acter of these rocks is likely to depend very largely upon work 

 now in progress, or remaining to be accomplished here. 



This being the case, it seems very appropriate to direct such 

 remarks as I may be privileged to make on the present occasion 

 chiefly to these more ancient rocks, and the subject is one 

 which cannot fail to present itself in concrete form to the 

 visiting members of this Section. Personally I cannot claim 

 to have engaged in extended or close investigations of these 

 rocks, and there is little absolutely new in what I can say in 

 respect to them ; but work of the kind is still actively in pro- 

 gress by members of the staff of the Geological Survey, and the 

 classification and discrimination of these older terranes present 

 themselves to us daily as important subjects of consideration in 

 connection with the mapping of vast areas ; so that, if still ad- 

 mittedly imperfect in many respects, our knowledge of them 

 must be appraised, and, at least provisionally, employed in a 

 practical way in order to admit of the progress of the surveys 

 in hand. 



Although it is intended to speak chiefly of the distinctively 

 pre-Cambrian rocks of Canada, and more particularly of the 

 crystalline schists, it will be necessary also to allude to others, 

 in regard to the systematic position of which differences of 

 opinion exist. Of the Cambrian itself, as distinguished by 

 organic remains, little need be said, but it is essential to keep 

 in touch with the paloeontologically established landmarks on 

 this side, if for no other reason than to enable us to realise in 

 some measure the vast lapse of time, constituting probably one 

 of the most important breaks in geological history, by which 

 the Cambrian and its allied rocks are separated from those of 

 the Huronian and Laurentian systems. 



In attempting to review so wide a subject and one upon 

 which so much has already been written, the chief difficulty is 

 to determine how much may be legitimately eliminated while 

 still retaining the important features. This must be largely a 

 matter of individual judgment, and I can only hope to present 

 what appear to me to be the essential points, with special refer- 

 ence to the geology of Canada. The useful object of any such 

 review is, of course, to bring out what may now actually be re- 

 garded as established respecting these older rocks, and in what 

 direction the most hopeful outlook exists for improving our 

 knowledge of them. For this purpose, the best mode of ap- 

 proaching the subject, in the first place, and up to a certain 

 point, is the historical one, anci it will thus be desirable to re- 

 capitulate briefly the first steps made in the classification of the 

 crystalline schists in Canada. This is the more appropriate, 

 because of the substantial accuracy of these first observations, 

 and the fact that they have since been largely buried out of 

 sight by a copious controversial literature of later growth. 



Soon after the Geological Survey of Canada was begun, now 

 more than fifty years ago, Logan (who in the earlier years of the 

 work may almost be said to have alone constituted the staff) 

 found himself confronted with the great areas of crystalline 

 rocks forming the continental Protaxis. The existing geological 

 edifice has been so largely the result of the past half-century of 

 work, that it is not now easy to realise the elementary condition 

 in which its foundations lay at that time. It was then but ten 

 years since Sedgwick and Murchison had given form to their 

 discoveries in regard to the Cambrian and Silurian, and a still 

 shorter time since the definite publication of the classification of 

 the Cambrian and the appearance of the " Silurian System," 



