THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 29 



means, is what must astonish any one who takes the trouble of 

 examining the maps pubHshed by the survey. 



An erroneous idea generally prevails in Ontario that the chief 

 object of the field geologist is to find out and locate where minerals 

 occur. We want some show for what geology costs us. If this 

 expressed opinion is accepted and passes w^ithout rebuke from legal 

 legislators at the seat of government at Ottawa, need we be sur- 

 prised when men of similar pursuits as ours in the United States 

 scornfully point to our Dominion as the only civilized country in the 

 world that places impediments in the way of scientific investigation^ 

 that offers every obstacle possible to research. I am reminded the 

 States are not themselves beyond reproach. Witness the case of the 

 late Professor Winchell, for instance. Well, that was the act of a few 

 fanatical bigots. The regents of an obscure denominational college, 

 whose very name was almost unknown outside its own state until 

 the Professor's appointment to the chair of Geology attracted attention 

 to it. The Michigan University, of far greater importance, was only 

 too well pleased to offer a wider field for the exercise of his un- 

 questioned abilities. That was merely the work of about half a 

 dozen ignorant, narrow-minded bigots, whose action was received 

 with contempt or indignation both in Canada and the States. But 

 is there not a measurable distinction between an act emanating from 

 such men and an Act passed by the Dominion Parliament, which 

 renders the Canadian naturalist liable to be prosecuted as an 

 ordinary vagabond if he happens to cross a railway track in pursuit 

 of a butterfly, or as a geologist ventures inside a railway fence to 

 examine the face of an escarpment or cUff in order, in the interest of 

 science, to settle some disputed point, or obtain for a Canadian 

 museum a rare fossil not found elsewhere ? 



In an extract taken from the Canadian Magazine, written by 

 G. T. Blackstock, I find as follows : " When we are making bold to 

 emulate her (the United States) prosperity, at the same time that we 

 exhibit a higher civilization, a better type of manhood, it is at such 

 a time that an artificial handicap is placed upon us in the race by 

 the solemn acknowledgment by the mother country, in the face of 

 Christendom, that the United States is the paramount power on this 

 continent." Now is this fact, above stated, proof of the more 

 advanced civifization he claims for our Dominion ? When I men- 



