ing than to the Historical Society. As Consul he was success- 

 ful in having us placed on the list of favored recipients of the 

 works issued by the United States' government. It used to 

 be said that what the European nations spent on military equip- 

 ment the United States spends on its publishing bureau. A 

 vast collection of useful material has thus been gathered in 

 these twenty-five years, now in excellent condition, though 

 largely hidden away for lack of space, in Geology, Agriculture, 

 Census, Education, Commerce, Statistics, Army Engineering, 

 etc. No one knows the treasures of this department, number- 

 ing no less than sixteen hundred volumes and an infinite num- 

 ber of valuable pamphlets and brochures issued by the govern- 

 ment. Within the last few weeks a purchase has been made 

 of eight large volumes of " Messages and Papers of the Pres- 

 idents, from George Washington down to President Garfield/' 

 The later issues will be added as printed. This set belongs 

 to the Public Library side. 



GREAT HITS. 



During these twenty-five years the Society, with watchful 

 eye, has secured great bargains. Judge Archer Martin, of 

 Victoria, B.C., had expensive tastes in book buying. He col- 

 lected a very complete set of " Selkirk Papers," i.e., books, etc., 

 relating to Lord Selkirk's early settlement of the colony of Red 

 River. Mr. Martin was an enthusiast on this subject. On 

 leaving Winnipeg Mr. Martin, being a warm friend of the 

 Society, surrendered to it his valuable collection for a very 

 moderate sum. 



By careful scrutiny of the hundreds of catalogues received 

 from dealers in Americana and Canadiana in London, Bristol, 

 Edinburgh, Paris, Berlin, New York, San Francisco, Cin- 

 cinnati and elsewhere, useful selections have continually been 

 made of books within the scope of the Society's work. A mag- 

 nificent set of six volumes, large quarto averaging 600 pages 

 a volume, of Schoolcraft's archives of Aboriginal knowledge 



