PROCEEDINGS. 6 



Ordinary Meeting, Feb. 5, 1866. 

 J. M. Jones, President, in the Chair. 



Messrs. J. R. Miller, James Forman, James B. Morrow, and John 

 Kelly, were elected members, and Mr. J. L. Hurdis, of Southampton, 

 England, a corresponding member, at the previous Council Meeting. 



Mr. P. S. Hamilton, Chief Commissioner of Mines, read a paper " On 

 Auriferous Deposits in Nova Scotia" 



Professor Lawson made some remarks upon the different methods at 

 present practised in the crushing of gold quartz. 



Capt. W. T. TowNSEND exhibited a very curiously formed "nugget" of 

 large size in the form of a cross, which had been obtained at one of the mines. 



The President read a continuation of Mr. J. L. Hurdis's '■'■Notes, on 

 Hurricanes and Revolving Gales of the North Atlantic." After its conclusion 

 he called attention to the almost perfect calm which had prevailed at Halifax 

 during the last month or two, when the Atlantic, at a distance of a few hun- 

 dred miles, had been the theatre of a series of storms of unparalleled violence. 

 He considered that as the Gulf Stream was undoubtedly the great course 

 over which the tropical gales swept their way, those gales were to some 

 extent influenced by the colder atmosphere which rested over the course of 

 the cold ocean current, which at that season of the year came with additional 

 force from the north, filling the intervening space between the western con- 

 fine of the gulf stream and the shores of Nova Scotia. This cold atmosphere 

 might act as a barrier against the westerly extension of such tropical storms, 

 and turn them in an easterly or north-easterly direction, which would point 

 them to the shores of Europe. He contended that the currents of the ocean 

 might have more influence upon the course of storms than was generally 

 imagined, and considered that it only required time and a proper system of 

 observation to prove the supposition. 



Vice President GiLf>lN read a short paper describing a species of Blarina, 

 recently taken near Halifax, which appeared to be entirely new to the Nova 

 Scotian fauna. 



Ordinary Meeting, March 5. 1866. 

 J. M. Jones, President, in the Chair. 



Colonel W. J. Myers, read a paper entitled ^^ Notes on the Weather during 

 1865." (See Transactions.^ 



The President read a paper by Professor How, of King's College, Wind- 

 sor, "Notes on the Economic Mineralogy of Nova Scotia; — Limestones and 

 Marbles." (See Transactions.) 



The Commissioner of Mines made some observations relative to the white 

 mai'ble that had been noticed in the paper, which was stated to have been full 

 of flaws. He happened a short time ago to be at the quarry, and heard from 

 a person there that the parties who had been at work had actually blasted the 

 marble with gunpowder. He thought this, without reference to other causes, 

 might well account for the shattered state of the specimen taken to England. 



