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Proceedings of Natural History Society. A437 
were read at our meetings and accepted for publication. Of 
these, the majority, thirteen in all, were on geological sub- 
jects, including mineralogy and paleontology, four were 
botanical and three on zoology and animal physiology. Of 
the geological papers, those by Dr. Harrington, Mr. Tyrrell 
and Mr. Adams related to rocks and minerals. By these 
gentlemen our attention was directed to the important and 
valuable coal deposits of the Northwest, embracing as we 
now know, all kinds of mineral fuel from anthracite to 
lignite, and to the curious and probably valuable deposits of 
gypsum recently discovered in the Northwest, as well as to 
the microscopic structure of some Canadian rocks. A new 
and interesting subject was also opened up by Dr. Harring- 
ton’s notes on the Bibliography of Canadian mineralogy, 
which brings before us some of those pioneers of our geology, 
who at a time when many parts of our country were difficult 
of access, and when little interest was taken here in such 
subjects, laboriously laid the foundations of our present 
magnificent accumulation of geological facts. In reading 
the memoirs left by these men, one is struck not by the 
paucity of facts and the difficulty experienced in their ex- 
planation, but by the skill and penetration and unwearied 
industry of the men, and the magnitude and accuracy of 
their results in comparison with the then crude condition of 
geological science and the inadequacy of the means at their 
disposal. In the fossils of the older formations, Mr. Matthews 
was kind enough to lay before us, in a condensed and clear 
manner, some of his latest results in the study of those 
Cambrian rocks of New Brunswick which have yielded so 
many new discoveries to his skilful and painstaking re- 
searches, and I had the pleasure of bringing under your 
notice some new fossil plants, which seem to throw much 
light on ancient vegetable forms hitherto greatly disputed, 
A good piece of local geology relating to a little explored 
and interesting region, was given us in the paper of Mr, 
Chambers on the Lake St. John district. In more recent 
geology the curious modern concretions found by Rev, Prof, 
Kavanagh near Boucherville helped us to explain those 
