134 



PRESIDENT'S ANNUAL ADDRESS. 



[1853. 



pardoned for dwelling a moment upon the claims of tliat publi- 

 cation to our active and zealous support. The advantages of a 

 ready medium of publication, its tendenc}' to encourage the 

 preparation of papers ; to elicit, and to attract as it were to itself, 

 by den;re&«, the information and knowledge which is afloat in the 

 community, are so great that it may seem superfluous to insist 

 upon them, but it may be scarcely less valuaTjle, I conceive, as an 

 index of the life that is in us; a ci'iterion of the actual state of 

 scientific knowledge in Upper Canada, and a permanent evidence 

 of the widening basis, the expansive growth of those pui-suits, 

 which it is the object of this Institute to combine and strengthen. 

 Let us hope, that while in the practical departments of the 

 mechanic, the engineer and the architect, it witnesses the treat- 

 ment of greater, more important, and more various subjects eveiy 

 year, as the industrial progress of the country will cause it to do ; 

 85 also there may appear the nece-sity for such an improvement in 

 the standard of the original and selected articles on scientific sub- 

 jects, as may shew increasing strength, and a higher faculty, in that 

 class of readers. It is greatly desirable at present that our 

 individual endeavours be given to extend its' circulation, and to 

 put it upon a footing to yield some just remuneration for the 

 editorial labour at present bestowed gratuitously upon it. 



It is with great pleasure. Gentlemen, that I am permitted to 

 announce that the Council has decided to ofi'er two medals for 

 competition in the session of 1853-4. 



One medal of the value of £l 0, for the best comprehensive essay 

 or paper on the Public Works of Canada, their commercial value 

 and relations to a general system of American Public Works ; their 

 chai'aetcristics in an engineering point of view, cost and other 

 particular?, to be illustrated by all necessary maps, plans, or 

 drawings. 



And, one medal of the value of £10, for the best essay or 

 paper upon the physical formation, climate, soil, and natural 

 productions of Upper Canada, to be also illustrated by all neces- 

 sary maps or diagrams. 



The amalgamation of tlie Toronto Athenxum with this 

 Society, a subject referred to in the Annual Rejoit of the 

 Council, promises, I am most gTatified to be enabled to state, to 

 be speedily carried into cft'ect. It will give us the adxantage of 

 the Librar}', which that institution owes in great measure to the 

 perseveiing and indofiitigable exertions of its most efficient 

 Secretary, Mi-. S. Thompson, and remove all appearance of 

 rivalry or division of forces in a cause in which all should 

 combine. 



It would be doing an injustice to this Society were T to omit, 

 on this occa-sion, to mention, on any false grounds of delicacy, a 

 circumstance which cannot be regarded as unim[)oita;it, in refoi-- 

 ence to the progress of the physical sciences in Canada. I allude 

 to the intention, oflicially expressed by the authorities under 

 •whom I have the honour to be employed here, of withdrawing 

 at an early period the military detachment by which a series of 

 observations in Magnetism and Meteorology has been maintained 

 in thio neighbourhood, since the year 1840. Naturi'lly deeply 



interested in the continuance of enquiries which have absorbed 

 the best yeai-s of my own life, and in whatever can bring 

 credit to a country to which I am bound by very strong ties, I 

 cannot but hope that means may be devised in the Colony f(T 

 maintaining a Physical Observatory at Toronto, upon a scale 

 fully adequate to the continued investigation of the numerous 

 and interesting subjects of enquiry, which it has hitherto culti- 

 vated; and with such additions as in abler hands may make it an 

 honour to the country. It is not for me, on the point of resum- 

 ing a purely military position, to concern myself unduly in a 

 civil and colonial question; but, neither, on the other hand, is it 

 for me, in the ofl3ce to which you have been pleased to call me, 

 to neglect to call your attention to a question in which the pub- 

 lic opinion will probably have its due weight, and to which the 

 Canadian Institute, as a body, cannot be indiflerent. 



I have now, Gentlemen, trespassed sufficiently long upon your 

 patience. This Society has a dignified, an honourable and a 

 patriotic object before it; the field is wide, and ready for the 

 harvest ; if the labourers are still few, and if much of that know- 

 ledge, contingent upon a thousand advantages never as yet brought 

 withia our reach, which alone cau truly appreciate or encourage 

 their exertions, is at a low point among us, let us not doubt that 

 it will gain ground with rapidity, and receive new impulses, and 

 new rewards, from e\ery endeavour we make to carry into effect 

 the objects of our incorporation. The talent and the energies 

 which can overcome disadvantages, can unquestionably be looked 

 for as confidently in our body, as in any similar society. I think 

 it might be said, are as unquestionably present — but this will be 

 best shewn by the event. With harmony and mutual respect 

 among oui-selves; with a liberal disposition, as a body, to encour- 

 age whatever may justly claim our countenance, and as individuals 

 to listen to whatever has a just claim to respectful attention, 

 although, as will often happen, the subject may be of little 

 interest, perhaps scarcely intelligible, to ourselves; we shall see 

 the Canadian Institute more respected, because more useful, eveiy 

 year, and have the reward of witnessing our society, grow with 

 the growth, and strengthen with the strength, of a country whose 

 progress in every element of material prosperit}-, will bear com- 

 parison favourably with that of any other in the world. 



Oil the Rocks of Can.nt!,. : by W. E. Lo^ritn, F.R.S'., aud G.S., 

 Director of tl e Gccliigiial Survey. 



(JOommuiiicnl ed to the Geological Sertioii, of the. British Association, at tlu 

 Meeting at Ipswich in Itiol, and ordered to be printed in full in tlu 

 RrpoH.) 



In the present paper it is my purpose to place before the 

 Association, in as condensed a form as possible, one or two of the 

 main features of the ph3'sical structure of Canada, ascertained in 

 the progress of the geological survey now carried on in the 

 country, under my direction, by the authority of the provincial 

 government. 



With the exception of the drift, the country is composed of 

 rocks, none of wliich are newer than the carboniferous epoch. The 

 general geographical distribution of these rocks, a.s far as ascer- 

 tjuneil, and as connected with the physical structure of the bor- 

 dering States of the Ame; ican Union, on the one hand, and the 

 sister British Provinces on the other, is represented on the map 

 which is displayed to view. 



