June 9, 1893.] 



SCIENCE. 



315 



mineral debris and the growth of vegetation have filled them up, 

 and thus altered the whole face of the country, a result soon to 

 be very marked within Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the Dakota?. 

 Indeed, the years can almost be counted when glacial lakes within 

 these States will be rare indeed. 



The question how long a period of time has elapsed since the 

 retreat of the glacial ice-sheet from the central portion of the 

 North American continent cannot be here discussed. Yet, by 

 way of suggestion, it may be said that, if the filling-iip of glacial 

 lake basins be a chronometer useful in measuring geological time, 

 the rate at which these lake basins are now filling up and disap- 

 pearing, and the fact that they have already disappeared from 

 the southern portions of the glaciated area, are strong presumptive 

 evidence that the ice of the glacial period lingered longest in the 

 region between Lake Michigan and the Missouri River to the north 

 of the 44th parallel, and that here the time since its disappearance 

 has been comparatively brief; indeed, that the estimates of Gil- 

 bert, Wright, Winchell, Upham, and others are long enough to 

 explain every phenomenon save, possibly, that of the redistribu- 

 tion of plants. 



The two remaining lake types are more permanent. Rivers 

 will continue to be silted and their currents choked so long as 

 two streams of varying transporting power merge into one. Rock 

 basins will continue to hold water so long as the conditions of 

 erosion are unfavorable through the obdurate resistance of crys- 

 talline rocks, and plant growth is discouraged through the lack of 

 soil, as is now the case around the margins of the rock-basin lakes 

 of northeastern Minnesota. 



THE ROYAL SOCIETy OF CANADA. 



The twelfth annual meeting of the Royal Society of Canada 

 was held at Ottawa, Canada, during the week begmning May 22, 

 and terminated its sessions on Thursday evening, the 2oth. 



The meeting opened under the presidency of Dr. J. G. Bourinot, 

 C.M.G., clerk of the House of Commons, etc. The meeting was 

 very well attended by fellows and delegates. 



The society divides itself into four sections, as follows: I. 

 French Literature and Hi&tory ; II., English Literature and His- 

 tory; IIL, Mathematical and Chemical Sciences; IV., Geology 

 and Biology. 



' Amongst the papers which interest the readers of Science most 

 were those of Sections HI. and IV., besides the " Science Lecture" 

 given to the public under the auspices of the Royal Society in the 

 Assembly Hal! of the Provincial Normal School. 



The president's inaugural address dealt with -'Our Intellectual 

 Strength and Weakness," which received most favorable com- 

 ment 



Tbe public science lecture was delivered by Dr. Ramsay 

 Wright, professor of biology and histology in Toronto University. 

 His subject was, " The Natural History of Cholera." In a mas- 

 terly manner Professor Wright treated his subject, and described 

 this minute microscopic plant through all its phases and life-history 

 in a simple, clear, and pi-actical manner, throwing a flood of light 

 and giving an amount of inforniacion of great value. 



In Section IV. Mr. Whiteaves gave the presidential address, in 

 the course of which he summed up the result of researches in the 

 Cretaceous formations of Canada. In the course of his address 

 Mr. Whiteaves showed that in Canada no less than 600 species of 

 fossils were known from the Cretaceous rocks of the Northwe!>t 

 Territories, of the Rocky Mountain region, and of the coast and 

 islands of Briiish Columbia. Of these some 450 were marine 

 invertebrates, mostly shells, and characterized the two divisions 

 into which the Cretaceous system was divided in Canada, viz , 

 the Earlier and Later Cretaceous. 



Sir William Dawson had described or identified no less than 

 115 species of plants from the Nanaimo, Queen Charlotte Islands, 

 and British Columbia Cretaceous basins. Mr. Whiteaves himself 

 had devoted his attention to the invertebrate and vertebrate 

 faunas {partini), whilst Professor Cope had in his hands a number 

 of the deinosaurian remains which characterize certain horizons 

 of the Cretaceous in the Prairie region of the Northwest. 



Then came Sir William Dawson's paper, entitled "Additional 



Notes on Cretaceous Plants from Port McNeill, British Columbia." 

 The collection made by Dr. G. M. Dawson at this place was 

 cursorily noticed in a note printed in the Transactions of this So- 

 ciety (1888, p. 71, Sec. IV.). As the collection is large and the 

 specimens unusually perfect, and some of the species are new 

 and very interesting, it has been thought desirable to prepare 

 more detailed descriptions, more especially as these plants belong 

 to either a station or a horizon somewhat distinct from those so 

 familiar in the coal-fields of Nanaimo and Comox on the other 

 side of Vancouver Island. 



This paper was followed by another from Mr. Whiteaves, "De- 

 scription of Some New Species of Fossils from the Trenton Lime- 

 stone of Manitoba." This was a continuation of two others on 

 the same subject which have already appeared in the Society's 

 Transactions. It contained descriptions and illustrations of sev- 

 eral species of Cephalopoda and of one rugose coral. 



Dr. Ells then read a most interesting contribution on the geol- 

 ogy underlying Northumberland Straits: "The Geology of the 

 Proposed Tunnel under the Northumberland Strait between New 

 Brunswick and Prince Edward Island." The paper discusses 

 briefly the several geological formations which border on that 

 portion of the Gulf of St. Lawr'ence adjacent to the Strait, with 

 reference more particularly to the several members of the Car- 

 boniferous system, the rocks of which have a very considerable 

 development in this area. The proposed tunnel, according to its 

 present location, will traverse these between Cape Tormentine, 

 in New Brunswick, and Carleton Point, in Prince Edward Island, 

 and the description of the strata which will probably be encoun- 

 tered is given, as shown by Jhe series of bore-holes put down 

 during the past season along the line of the principal route. 



Dr. Ells was elected fellow of the Royal Society at its last meet- 

 ing, and has, through his numerous papers and writings on the 

 geology of Canada, contributed much new information regard- 

 ing the economic minerals, as well as some of the most intricate 

 problems of geology, chiefly in New Brunswick and Quebec. 



Mr. Lawrence M. Lambe contributed his second paper on 

 "Sponges from the Pacific Coast of Canada." The paper de- 

 scribes the sponges collected by Dr. G. M. Dawson in the vicinity 

 of Vancouver Island and the Queen Charlotte Islands. There 

 are, all told, about twenty species, seventeen of which are sili- 

 ceous. 



Mr. W. Hague Harrington read a paper on the " Canadian 

 Uroceridse." in which descriptions, synoptical tables, and lists, 

 together with remarks on the occurrence, distribution, etc., of 

 the species, are given, whilst the Rev. G. W. Taylor of Victoria, 

 B.C., presented "A List of the Land and Fresh- Water Mollusca 

 of Canada, with Notes on their Distribution." 



Mr.G. F. Matthew of St. John, New Brunswick, so well known 

 for bis valuable papers on Cambrian geology and paleeontology, 

 was to the fore with three papers or contributions : — 



(a) "Illustrations of the Fauna of the St. John Group, No. 

 VIII.," contains descriptions of new species from Band h of Divi- 

 sion 1, and Band h. Division 3; also forms from Division 1 b. 



(6) " On Some Remarkable Organisms of the Silurian and De- 

 vonian Rocks of Southern New Brunswick, No. 2." A paper on 

 certain species of the above formations was read before the Royal 

 Society in 1888. The present article contains descriptions of a 

 few others, all of which are from the well known plant beds of 

 Lancaster, near St. John. These were found by Mr. W. J. Wil-' 

 son, now of the Geological Survey of Canada. 1. The wing of 

 an insect of the genus Homothetus. 2. A new species of scorpion. 

 This species is of Silurian (Upper) type; the thoracic shield, 

 which is unusually narrow, is the only part certainly known. 



3. A new land shell ; it resembles Strophites grandceva of Sir 

 Wm. Dawson, but is larger and proportionately more slender. 



4. A millipede, a minute species, belonging to the division Chilo- 

 poda; of which the body is not complete. 



(c) " Traces of the Ordovician System on the Atlantic Coast." 

 This system has not heretofore been recognized by its fossils on 

 the Atlantic Coast of America, except at St. John, where the 

 oldest part of it (Arenig horizon) is folded in with the Cambrian 

 rocks at St. John. We now recognize it at two other points, viz.. 

 Conception Bay, Newfoundland, and Bras d'Or Lake, Cape Breton. 



