September 10, inoo] 



SCIENCE 



351 



that still exists in California, have been 

 flooded by the continued subsidence of the Bay 

 of San Francisco. 



It is remarkable and little appreciated that 

 the physical history of the Pacific coast should 

 be so like that of the eastern coast of America. 

 On both sides we have the preglacial, Sierran 

 or Ozarkian, elevation of the land, and erosion 

 of deep canyons ; the southward advance of 

 the glaciers; the Champlain, or San Pedro, 

 subsidence and amelioration of the climate; 

 the Terrace elevation and moderate erosion; 

 and the recent subsidence that made the fiords 

 of New England and of Puget Sound, the 

 gentler bays of California and Oregon on the 

 west, and the sounds of the Atlantic states on 

 the east. On both sides of the continent sub- 

 merged canyons run out to sea, marking the 

 course of drowned rivers of early Quaternary 

 time, now forming channels of navigation, 

 making possible the maritime commercial cen- 

 ters of the east and the west. 



James Perrin Smith 



THE WIXNIPEG MEETING OF THE BRITISH 

 ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT 



OF SCIENCE 

 The seventy-ninth annual meeting of the British 

 Association for the Advancement of Science was 

 held at Winnipeg, Canada, August 25 to Sep- 

 tember 1. under the presidency of Sir J. J. Thom- 

 son, professor of experimental physics in the 

 University of Cambridge. This was the fourth 

 time only in the long history of the association 

 that it met outside of the British Isles; the other 

 three being Montreal 1884, Toronto 1897, and 

 South Africa 1905. The westward movement of 

 the Canadian meetings and the increasing fre- 

 quency of the meetings outside of the British 

 Isles afford much food for thought, and the 

 former was the source of many comments as 

 regards the rapid development of central Canada 

 and of Winnipeg in particular. 



The inaugural meeting, held in the Walker 

 Theater on the evening of August 25, was opened 

 by the rising of Professor Geo. Carey Foster, who 

 asked Major !MacMahon, the general secretary, to 

 read a letter from the retiring president. Francis 

 Darwin, who was unable to be present. After the 

 reading of this letter the president-elect, Sir 

 Joseph Thomson, read his inaugural address, deal- 

 ing with a wide range of educational matters in 



a very scholarly manner. His expressed wish that 

 the interchange of students between the British 

 Isles and Canada should increase was received 

 with loud applause. 



After this address Mayor Evans, of Winnipeg, 

 welcomed the association and delivered a very 

 interesting address, which was in part as follows: 



" To the men and women who have earned by 

 their ser\ices tlie position of leaders in the work 

 of science and to the association which is devoted 

 to the encouragement of scientific investigation 

 and the spread of scientific truth, we would do all 

 honor and to them we extend a hearty welcome to 

 our city and to our country. To those who are 

 present from the nations of continental Europe 

 and from the United States we offer a particular 

 welcome to this portion of the British empire, for 

 beyond the value of their contributions to the 

 success of this meeting from the scientific stand- 

 point, their consent to participate in the work of 

 this association must strengthen among the na- 

 tions the realization of unity of interests in the 

 fundamental concerns of life, which should, and we 

 believe will, tend more and more to lessen the 

 causes of serious dispute. 



" But cosmopolitan as it is and must be in its 

 spirit, we do not forget that this is the British 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, an 

 institution of our own empire, with its origin and 

 home in the heart of that empire. To it, as an 

 evidence of the vitality of the higher life of the 

 empire and as a most important agency in the 

 improvement of the material conditions of the 

 British peoples, as well as in the stimulation and 

 discipline of their rational powers, we give a 

 welcome that draws a quality from our common 

 patriotism. We have by custom no ceremony that 

 bestows the freedom of the city, but with all the 

 cordial significance of that formality we bid you 

 to be free in Winnipeg. Our city is such as you 

 may see it. The observations of a day will, how- 

 ever, give you only the statical facts of the city, 

 whereas the real Winnipeg is essentially a study 

 in dynamics. It has trebled its population in the 

 past eight years and is increasing to-day in that 

 ratio. Literature is distributed to its citizens in 

 forty-five languages and dialects and immigrants 

 are daily coming from all quarters of the earth. 

 It is the principal city of central and western 

 Canada, so situated between the Great Lakes to 

 the north and the international boundaries that 

 all the traffic in Canada between the east and the 

 west does and must pass through it. Its business 

 is expanding in proportion to the remarkably 



