THE PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 111 
alike relating itself to the economic appliances of science in the tele- 
graphic lines of daily commercial intercourse, and bearing its part in 
the grand triumphs of intellect by which we reach forth to grasp at 
truths written for us in the central sun, in the revolving planets, and 
amid the wondrous galaxy of stars that stretch away in mysterious 
magnificence into the infinite depths of space, until imagination and 
reason tremble alike in the vain effort to conceive of a finitude for 
that visible Universe, by which the heavens declare the glory of God, 
and nightly utter knowledge of Him who alone is truly infinite. 
But the subsidiary labours already referred to in connection with 
the Atlantic Telegraphic expedition bring us into relation with another 
branch of scientific labour in which Canada maintains a no less 
efficient staff of workers. The novel and interesting truths of Natural 
History revealed by the deep-sea soundings conducted under the 
guidance of Sir Leopold McClintock and Dr. Wallich, not only 
greatly enlarge the sphere of organic life, and open up an ample field 
for fresh explorations of the naturalist in those deep zones of the 
ocean which have hitherto been assumed to present conditions incom- 
patible with organic life: but they are calculated to throw fresh light 
on the paleontology of the long emerged terra firma ; and, with their 
accumulated calcareous shells of the minute Foraminifera, amounting, 
in some of the specimens of soil brought up from the profound depths 
of the ocean bed, to 95 per cent. of the whole mass; and their highly 
organized and brilliantly tinged living radiata and mollusca: to 
illustrate the processes by which vast strata which now invite the study 
of the geologist, were slowly accumulated in the abysses of the 
primeval ocean. 
The distinguished geologist who so honorably presides over the la- 
bours of our provincial corps of observers, and whose former occupance 
of this chair reflects an honor on the humblest of his successors, is 
peculiarly devoid of that ambition which, among scientific workers on 
- both sides of the Atlantic, is seen to tempt some from the patient 
fidelity to their legitimate pursuits, in the search for showy but often 
worthless disclosures that win the temporary meed of vulgar applause. 
He rather exhibits to us in a preeminent degree the example of a 
modest and patient searcher after those hidden truths of nature, the 
full worth of which will only be fully appreciated when other genera- 
tions have entered into his labours; and it is then seen how largely 
such earnest and faithful verification of the thousand isolated facts of 
