90 CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



LIBRARIAN'S REPORT. 



"So cbano-es have taken place iu the disposition of the library of the Institute 

 since the last report. 



Our collection of works haying reference to the eai'ly history of this continent 

 in o-eneral, and Canada in particular, has been enriched by the addition to it of 

 the well-known, but rather scarce. Travels of Rochefoucault Liancourt, especially 

 interesting as containing an account of the state of things in the Province of 

 Upper Canada at the close of the last century. The full description of this work 

 is as follows : — " Travels through the United States of North America, the 

 country of the Iroquois and Upper Canada, in the years 1795, 1796, and 1797, by 

 the Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt, with an authentic account of Lower 

 Canada. Three maps, several tables, &c. Second edition. Four vols. Royal 

 8vo. London: 1800." 



In addition to this desirable acquisition we have the gratification of naming 

 another of a somewhat similar character, although not so locally interesting: — 

 '' Travels in America, performed in 1806, for the purpose of exploring the Rivera 

 Alleghany, Monongahela, Ohio and Mississippi, and ascertaining the produce 

 and condition of their banks and vicinity, By Thomas Ashe, Esq. Three 

 volumes in one. 12mo. London, 1803." 



These are the valuable donations of Lawrence Heyden, Esq., Corresponding 

 Secretary of the Institute. 



Mr. Heyden also contributes a curious tract of thirty-seven pages, in quarto, 

 containing a translation in Latin of the Journal of Martin Frobisher, during his 

 explorations in the Arctic Regions in 1577. The full title is as follows : — 



"I.KJ. — Historia Navigationis Martini Forbisseri [sic passim], Angli Pretoria 

 sive Capitani, A.C. 1577, Maio, Junio, Julio, Augusto et Septembri Mensibus, 

 jussu Reginse Elisabethse, ex Anglia in Septemtrionia et Occidentis tractum 

 susceptEe, Ephemeridis sive diarii more conscripta et stilo, triennioque post, ex 

 Gallico in Latinum sermonem, a Joh. Thoma Freigio translata, et Noribergse, 

 ante A. 94. cum prsefatione utili, observationibusque aliquot et appendice edita, 

 denuo prodit e Museo D. Capelli, P.P. Hamburgi, sumptibus Joh. Numanni et 

 Georgi Wolfii. Anno 1675." The frontispiece is a curious copperplate engrav- 

 ing, showing, at the top, a man in a canoe aiming a spear of three prongs at a 

 bird in the air; at the bottom, on the left, a small map of "Forbisser's Straet," 

 &c. ; and on the right a representation of two veritable unicorns. We learn 

 from the notes that these are inserted because their existence is analogically 

 proved by the fact that Frobisher actually met with sea-unicorns, locally called 

 Narwhals — the horn of which was found, by experiment, to be fatal to spiders — 

 just as the horn of the real land-unicorn is reported to be to life generally, by 

 reason of a certain exudation. 



Mr. Heyden also presents to the Library the two following valuable and 

 interesting works : — 



" Consuetudines Kancise: A History of Gavelkind and other remarkable 

 customs in the County of Kent. By Charles Sandys, F.S. A. (Cantianus). 8vo, 

 London : John Russell Smith. 1851." 



