MAMMALS AND BIRDS OF PRINCE OF WALES SOUND. Ill 



"The telephone lines connecting New York and Philadelphia, recently- 

 erected by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, of this city, 

 have already been described in our columns. It was evident to all interested 

 that lines running parallel for over one hundred miles would suffer from 

 induction if the ordinary "grounds" were employed: hence complete me- 

 tallic circuits of hard-drawn copper wire were erected, through which the 

 articulation obtained, as we have ourselves tested, leaves nothing to be 

 desired. It becomes manifest, however, that the erection of a double circuit 

 is accompanied by a considerable increase in the cost of construction. Hence 

 it is but natural for the company to seek in some way to increase the capacity 

 of its lines, but still to retain the advantages of the metallic circuit. 



' ' The duplexing of these telephonic circuits was, therefore, undertaken by 

 Mr. John A. Barrett, of Brooklyn, who has succeeded in devising a system 

 which, broadly stated, consists in bringing the metallic or double-wire hiati-u- 

 ments at the terminal stations into inductive relation, by means of converting or 

 repeating coils, with both sides of the circuit." 



The question of priority of invention will be decided by the United 

 States Patent Office, and I doubt not due justice will be done in the 

 premises. 



Mr. R. F. Stupart read a paper on " Barometric Pressures." 

 The President congratulated the Institute on the three 

 valuable and important papers that had been read that even- 

 ing, and contrasted the present with the time when it was 

 difficult to procure even one paper, which was read to an 

 audience of from six to a dozen persons. 



NINTH MEETING. , 



Ninth Meeting, 15th January, 1887, the President in the 

 Chair. 



Exchanges since last meeting, 19. 



The following were elected members : — J. J. Kelso, William 

 George Mutton, Alfred Henry Mason, F.C.S., M.R.M.S. 



Mr. F. F. Payne read the following paper on " The Mam- 

 mals and Birds of Prince of Wales Sound, Hudson's Strait," 



During a stay of thirteen months at Prince of Wales Sound, Hud- 

 sons Strait, with the priniai-y object of taking meteorological obser- 

 vations, and having some leisure time I devoted as much of this time 

 as was possible to the study of natural history of this region, making 

 collections of the mammals, birds, fishes, insects, and plants ; also 

 making- numerous notes from my own observations and from such 

 infoi'mation as I could gather from the Eskimo, who are most keen 

 observers of nature. 



