122 



PRESIDENT'S ANNUAL ADDRESS. 



[1853. 



the addition, " will contribute experiments ;" tbere were otbers 

 who were expected not only to pay, but to " give yearly one 

 entertainment to the Society." Now, I tbink, it may be said that 

 that we do not indulge these briUiant prospects of entertainments, 

 anl do expect all our members to "pay;" but still more 

 confidently may we expect that lively general interest on their 

 parts which will impel all fi-om whom it may be reasonably 

 looked, to "contribute experiments;" that is, to prepare papers 

 upon the subjects of their several pui-suits or studies, and induce 

 those who have joined us principally with the kind and generous 

 purpose of assisting objects which they respect, but do not 

 pui-sue, to give one additional proof of their interest, by 

 occasionally attending our weekly meetings. 



It is, perhaps, too much to expect that there can be, at present, 

 any considerable proportion of papere upon scientific subjects 

 ehcited from the Society. Not to dwell upon the fact that the 

 production of such papers presupposes the existence of acquire- 

 ments and of pureuits which we know to be the character- 

 istics of a different state and stage of society from that existing 

 in Upper Canada at present, and which it is our hope and aim 

 to develope, rather than our pretension to embody, we labour 

 under several special disadvantages. For instance, the simplicity 

 and sameness, over great areas, of the geological formations of 

 this peninsula, — their comparative poverty in fossils, — the absence 

 of mountain ranges, — the limited catalogue of its mineral pro- 

 ductions; all undoubtedly combine to deprive that delightful 

 study of many of its attractions, and to deprive societies like ours 

 of an allurement and stimulus to individual exertions. The same 

 physical peculiarity limits to a certain extent, I presume, as com- 

 pare! with other geographical provinces of this continent, — the 

 field of the naturalist and botanist, at least in some departments ; 

 for entomology and probably ornithology are exceptions. But 

 we should be very wrong to infer from this that there 

 is nothing for the cultivatoi-s even of those branches of science 

 to learn, nothing which they may contribute to the knowledge 

 of the world. It was a keen eye in Mr. Hunt which 

 detected in the coarse-grained silicious sandstones of the 

 River Quelle, belonging to the Lower Silurian formation, — 

 those few, scattered, anomalous foreign substances, — the longest 

 fragment about an inch and a half long and one-fourth of an inch 

 in diameter, whose chemical constitution, revealed by his skilful 

 analysis, sustains a supposition which even geology, habituated 

 as it is to ha\-e its landmarks carried ever further and further 

 back into the bosom of the eternity behind us, deems almost too 

 extravagant for belief. These bodies consist in great part of 

 phosphate of lime; and every thing about them, save only their 

 startling antiquity, leads him to the belief, — shared also, there is 

 reason to think, by geologists of great eminence, — that they are 

 the bones of vertebrate animals, and that certain nodules of similar 

 constitution accompanying them, are coprolites: thus actually 

 revealing not only the existence but the carnivorous character of 

 races of the animal kingdom which have been hei-etofore sup- 

 posed to have had no existence on our globe until a much later 

 period. I do not, liowever, allude to this discovery — on which 

 Mr. Hunt observes becoming caution, and which thodistinguisheil 



director of the geological sur\-ey has not, that I am awaie of, sup- 

 ported as yet with his own authority, — as if it were establislied ; 

 but refer to it simply as a recent illustration, furnished by a 

 Canadian geologist, of what close observation, prompted by a 

 spirit of en.pury, and sustained by sound knowledge, may detect 

 in an apparently unpromising field. Mr. Abraham's interesting 

 discoverv of crustacean footprints in the argillaceous schist of 

 Beanport is another case in point. We might come much nearer 

 home. How many of us have made our daily walks in this busy 

 neighbourhood subservient" to the same study ? Study Paljeon- 

 tolugy, collect fossils at Toronto ! I can imagine some one to say, 

 as if the idea were preposterous ; yet one of our members, Pro- 

 fessor Hind, has found a laige proportion of those of the Hudson 

 Ri\er group, figured iu that magnificent work, the Pakeontology 

 of New York, — 1 believe some fifty or sixty at least, and some 

 which are apparently undescribed there, — no further from hence 

 than the banks of the Humber bay. At the late Pro\incial Fair, 

 held in this city, wiis there not one thing exhibited, where we 

 should have least expected to meet with it, which suggested to 

 every one who saw it the happiness of a lo\e for natural history, 

 and the astonishing richness of the humblest section of that wide 

 field ? I allude to the curious collection of objects illustrating 

 insect ai-ehitecture, gathered by Mr. Couper, of this city, which 

 accompanied his entomological collection. And it needed but 

 close observation and a love of nature to find the works of instinct, 

 varied to meet a thousand needs, in which the humble yet Divine 

 intelligence of the Architect lived before us, where most of us, 

 perhaps, have found only the pests of our gardens. I know that 

 a military oflicer, recently in this garrison, who combined the 

 naturalist with the sportsman, formed an extensive ornithological 

 collection, while actually performing his duties here; and most 

 of us have contemplated with interest and instruction the 

 collection of birds, shot I believe entirely in this neighbourhood, 

 which Mr. Doel has exhibited on various occasions. It 

 cannot be said that there is not ample scope for pui-suits of 

 natural history even in this neighbourhood. It may require an 

 Agassiz to detect in the Lepidosteus or gar-pike of our lakes, 

 that remote reptilian character which distinguishes it from 

 every known fish, and stamps it as the last and only representa- 

 tive of the gigantic race of fish-lizards of the secondary epoch ; 

 but we need not such confirmation of the truth which probably 

 no one will question, that our streams, our lakes, our woods, our 

 fields, — all, beyond a doubt, — present, in their inhabit;ints or their 

 productions, a full proportion of those nice and narrow distinc- 

 tions from similar objects elsewhere, which form the peculiar study 

 of the natui-alist, and are so often connected with the broadest 

 and most important enquiries raised in the progress of science. 



In venturing, then, to guard against exaggerated views of what 

 such a society as oui's can effect, by remarking that we must not 

 expect that papere on purely scientific subjects can be frequently 

 presented to us, at present, I had in view, chiefly, the circumstance 

 that oiu' constitution is avowedly practical, and, in some measure, 

 even professional ; for it wiis the Professional Society of Engineers 

 and Architects from which it derives its origin ; and any one who 

 lins remarked the curious descent, as some might call it, .ascent 



