30 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 



tioned to a Smithsonian and another Professor lately that I regretted 

 the Directors of the Grand Trunk Railway had warned off naturaHsts 

 from the chief points of interest about Hamilton, and mentioned the 

 reason assigned for so doing, they expressed considerable astonish- 

 ment at such an occurrence, and doubted if the railway people had 

 not made a stupid blunder in wrongly putting a construction never 

 intended on the clause of the Act in question. A higher civilization 

 — how is that displayed ? Take science for instance. A short time 

 ago the Dominion Geological Survey Office was removed from Mon- 

 treal to Ottawa. No preparation was made to provide a suitable 

 building for the priceless organic remains, minerals, etc., collected 

 at great expense during half a century. I am informed that a gen- 

 tleman who possessed some influence, political I presume, had a sort 

 of white elephant on his hands in the shape of an old barrack which 

 he could not convert to any useful purpose. He interviews his friend, 

 the head of a government department, and states he is willing to 

 dispose of the same for the required offices, the bargain is made, 

 and the Director-General of the Geological Survey invited to take 

 possession of the recent purchase. It was useless to remonstrate and 

 point out its unsuitability for the purpose. " Now, my dear fellow, 

 stow away your confounded old stones and things as well as you can ; 

 it is too late to tell us all that." No money insurance could com- 

 pensate the Dominion, or restore even a, fraction of the loss we may 

 sustain at any moment, by an accidental fire, for instance. A short 

 time ago I understand some very uncomplimentary remarks regard- 

 ing the progress of scientific research in Canada, appeared in a paper 

 published in the States. I have not seen it. If we are open to a 

 charge of this sort the blame does not lie with the staff of the Geolog- 

 ical Survey Office. The annual sum appropriated by the Dominion 

 Legislature is quite inadequate for the survey of a territory as exten- 

 sive as the United States combined ; independent of that, what a 

 vast difference there is in examining and reporting on an unexplored 

 country and one that has been opened up and penetrated by rail or 

 road in all directions. The fault, if it exists, does not rest with the 

 staff, but the government, which grudgingly gives the smallest sum 

 for the advancement of science. " The chief object of geologists," 

 remarked a gentleman who visited the Museum recently, " I take it is 

 to locate on the maps the places where valuable minerals may be 



