DIABASE DYKES OF RAINY LAKE. 173 



originally polysyllabic, and was developed according to man's wants. The 

 Chinese was referred to in opposition to this opinion, but this was not a fair 

 example to cite, besides there were indications in Chinese of a polysyllabic 

 structure. 



Mr. Tout thoiight the mistake was in supposing any one theory contained 

 the whole truth. There was no one individual way in which language 

 was formed. He imagined that language was first formed partly dissyllabic 

 and partly syllabic. 



TWENTY-FIRST MEETING. 



Twenty-First Meeting, April 9th, 1887, the President in the 

 chair. 



Dr. Ellis was appointed representative of the Institute at 

 the next meeting in Ottawa of the Royal Society of Canada. 



A donation was announced of 83 species of plants, from 

 Mr. G. Montague White. 



Exchanges since last meeting, 44. 



Mr. Goodwin Gibson was elected a member. 



Mr. H. R. Moore, on behalf of Mr. A. C. Lawson, M.A., 

 Geologist to the Geological Survey of Canada, read a paper on 



THE DIABASE DYKES OF RAINY LAKE. ^ 



The most recent of the crystalline rocks of the Rainy Lake region 

 are coraprised in a series of sti'ong dykes of comparatively fresh 

 diabase which are observed to cut, at different localities, the vai-ious 

 members of the Archaean complex of formations. These dykes are 

 not infrequent throughout the country lying between the eastern 

 confines of the first prairie steppe, which forms the basin of the 

 Red River of the north, and the westei-n Border of the area of 

 Animikie and later formations of the Lake Superior basin. Their 

 occurrence and some of their characters are briefly referred to in my 

 rej)ort on the Lake of the Woods region.* As there observed, the 

 occurrence of these dykes cutting the older folded rocks, which in 

 their eastwax'd geographical continuation, pass under the flat-lying 

 Animikie and Keweenawan formations, is suggestive of their 



* Geological and Natural History Survey of Canada, Annual Report, 1885, p. 41 CO., p. 47 CC 



