JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 73 
to make room for the constantly increasing number of fossils being 
added by the different collectors. 
Col. C. C. Grant, the most indefatigible member of the Sec- 
tion, has spent nearly the whole time at his disposal during the past 
year collecting fossils and data as to the different horizons whence 
certain organic remains first appeared on their stage of existence. 
Many of the duplicate forms of fossils have been sent to the 
principal museums of the world, notably the British Museum, 
Washington Museum, Dublin Museum, and others, including our 
own at Ottawa and Montreal. The recipients have expressed 
their great pleasure and thanks for these donations, The fossil 
sponges are subjects of great interest to the professors in science 
who visit the museums containing these specimens. 
Our museum has been kept open to the public on Saturday 
afternoons during the past year, so that the student of science could 
have an opportunity for comparative study, and gather such infor- 
mation as would be helpful to him in his special or general study, 
whether he took up the Geological, Palaeontological, Mineralogical 
Archaeological, Botanical or Conchological branch, and the Section 
is pleased to be able to place this fact on record, that qnite a num- 
ber availed themselves of the opportunity. 
The Section had hoped that before submitting this annual re- 
port it could have been placed on record that more commodious 
quarters had been secured for the better display of our already 
large and overgrown collection. Also, that instead of a few mem- 
bers who evince an undying interest in such a good work as the 
Hamilton Association is promoting, that the citizens of Hamilton 
generally would have taken hold and given us such assistance as 
would gladden the heart of the most pessimistic member of the As- 
sociation, and at the same time have added another important at- 
traction to visitors to this beautiful city, viz., a public museum. 
Papers of interest were read at four of the meetings of the 
Section, two on geological topics, and two on malacology. The 
latter dealt with a few of the families represented in the museum, 
and one of the papers alluded specially to the fresh water shell, 
such as are found in the lakes and rivers of North America. Com- 
parison was drawn between the fossil and the living types. 
