CANADIAN ACADEMY OF ART. 625 



and growth of the coral tree and head coral was clearly explained, showing it to 

 be analagous to the same process in vegetation. It was further explained that 

 coral formed and threw off eggs, which floated to some suitable place, and there 

 began the process of development independently, forming new colonies, which in 

 time connect and form reefs, upon which are deposited accretions, in time build- 

 ing up keys and islands. 



Reef-building corals will not grow at a depth of over one hundred to one 

 hundred and twenty feet. There have been reef-building corals found at a depth 

 of I, GOO feet, but they were dead — drowned by being carried below their depth. 

 This confines them to coast lines and submarine banks. Coral will not grow 

 where the temperature is lower than 68° at any time, that is of the ocean, not the 

 air. Therefore, they are confined to the tropical regions. They will not grow 

 except in clear saltwater; hence there is always a break in reefs opposite the 

 mouth of a river. Finally, they demand free exposure to the beating of the 

 waves. The more violently the waves beat the more rapidly the corals grow, 

 because the agitation gives them ventilation. Corals will grow in the face of 

 waves whose beatings would gradually wear away a wall of granite. The 

 four kinds of coral reefs found in the Pacific Ocean are fringe reefs, barrier reefs, 

 circular reefs, inclosing lagoons in the ocean, and small lagoonless coral islands. 

 The explanation of the formation of the last three named will form the subject of 

 the next lecture. — San Francisco Chronicle. 



CANADIAN ACADEMY OF ART. 



A meeting was held at Montreal, Canada, to create a Canadian Academy of 

 Art, Dr. J. W. Dawson, C. M. G. (Chairman), and Dr. T. Sterry Hunt, Mon- 

 treal ; Dr. Daniel Wilson, President of the University of Toronto; Dr. Selwyn, of 

 the Geological Survey; Dr. Lawson, of Dalhousie College, Halifax; Mr. J. M. 

 Lemoine, President of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, and Mr. 

 Fauchar de St. Maurice, M. P., were present at the meeting. The proposed 

 Academy is to be composed of six sections representing English letters, French 

 letters, history and archseology, mathematical and physical sciences, geological 

 sciences and biological sciences. It is probable that the membership will be 

 limited to ten or twelve in each section. 



