2 Tilings to be observed in Canada* 



receive due credit for their successful efforts. A few men highly 

 gifted and widely travelled, or thoroughly conversant with all the 

 details of special subjects, are consulting naturalists, and the re- 

 ducers into a more general and scientific form of the facts obtained 

 from many quarters ; but still the great majority of naturalists,, 

 and among them many of the most estimable and useful, are very 

 limited in their field of actual observation. 



We have several such men in Montreal, as well as a%few of 

 somewhat more extended reputation ; and there are no doubt a 

 number of young persons who might be induced to devote some 

 portion of their leisure to such studies, did they know of a profit- 

 able field of enquiry. To such I have no doubt that the topics of 

 this lecture will be of interest. 



Good works of art are rare and costly, good works of nature are 

 scattered broadcast around our daily paths ; and are neglected 

 only because their familiarity prevents us from observing their 

 surpassing beauty and interest. Nor are all of these objects 

 known even to naturalists. There are, more especially in these 

 new countries, scarcely any objects that have been thoroughly in- 

 vestigated, and there are vast numbers that are quite unknown to 

 science. I cannot in the space of one lecture point to even the 

 greater number of these objects, — nor is it possible to conjecture 

 the results which may attend inquiries prosecuted in new direc- 

 tions. It may, however, be possible to direct your attention to 

 some leading departments of the great field of nature, that deserve 

 your attention. 



Let us inquire in the first place for the most promising local 

 fields of inquiry in the domain of zoology. 



To begin with the lower members of the animal kingdom, I 

 am not aware that anything has been done with our spongillae or 

 fresh-water sponges. Such organisms must exist in our lakes and 

 streams, and though very low and simple in their structure, much 

 interest attaches to their growth, nutrition and reproduction. 

 They are soft gelatinous structures, with an internal skeleton of 

 silicious spicula, greenish in colour, and resembling some of the 

 fresh water algse which live with them. Dr. Bowerbank of Lon- 

 don is preparing a monograph of the sponges, and informs me 

 that he will be glad to receive specimens from our waters. Here 

 then is an opening for a young naturalist. I quote the following 

 from Dr. Bowerbank's printed circulai\ and shall be glad to receive 

 and forward specimens : — 



