66 NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OP MONTREAL. 



val of the Society's collections, and the erection of our new and 

 commodious apartments. Since that time, our collections have 

 been largely augmented ; many new members have been added 

 to our list ; and our monthly meetings have been amply supplied 

 with interesting communications, many of them marking impor- 

 tant steps of progress in the natural history of Canada. We 

 have now connected with this Society, as members and corres- 

 pondents, nearly all the working naturalists and geologists of Bri- 

 tish America ; and our proceedings, published in the Canadian 

 Naturalist, have extended the reputation of the Society through- 

 out the world, and added an immense mass of valuable facts to 

 the natural history of this country. The seven large volumes of 

 our Naturalist, and the numbers constantly appearing, now form 

 an indispensable part of the library of every one who studies the 

 natural history of North America. Our labours have also been 

 appreciated at home. The circulation of the Naturalist in Ca- 

 nada, and the fact that it is self-supporting, the large attendance 

 at our monthly meetings and public lectures, and the recognition 

 of the Society by the government of the country, as a recipient 

 of a portion of the sums which Canada, in emulation of the wise 

 liberality of older countries, annually grants for scientific and liter- 

 ary purposes, all testify to this. We all wish, however, that the 

 advantages which we offer were still more largely used. Our 

 philosophy is not of that kind which shuts itself up in pedantic 

 exclusiveness. We regard the study of nature as the common 

 heritage of all, and desire to open up to every one, from the little 

 child upward, its beauties and its uses. Placed as I am at the 

 head of an educational institution in which all branches of learn- 

 ing are represented, it does not become me, on ordinary occasions, 

 to magnify my own special office as a teacher of natural science, 

 or to insist on the reasons which have induced me to prefer in 

 my own case the study of nature to other means of improving 

 my mental powers and rendering myself useful to my fellow men. 

 But here, as an officer of this Society, I may be permitted, with- 

 out disparagement to other kinds of useful knowledge, to state 

 some special claims of the study of nature. And firs,t I would 

 say on this subject, that the study of nature is eminently fitted to 

 develop all our higher powers. Reasoning on first principles, 

 this is absolutely undeniable, and might be stated still more 

 strongly. Man is the only creature on our globe fitted to com- 

 prehend nature, and in his primitive state of innocence it was his 



