^Oi* 7/3 



1853] INTRODUCTION. x 



(l\\\\1> Cfl^FTTTrri^Tim ^lTtrrrtltl infan ° y f ° ^ VI 'g° urof y outl1 ' ™ equally encouraging sign of 



vvljt VLUUIUlUuUl ^UIllUUL advancing appreciations of the claims of Literature and Science. 



' It would be unreasonable to suppose that there could already be 



TORONTO AUGUST lfiVl found among the transactions of the Society, or in the contribu- 



tions to this Journal, any positive additions to knowledge such as 



rn , j. ,, , . , _ ,. illumine the records of kindred associations in older countries, 



lhe commencement ot another volume of the Canadian . , , . . , ._ , 



T , a . ., ,, .. . . .' , And yet a search would not be altogether m vain. Ethnologists 



Journal otters a suitable opportunity for reviewing the progress ... , ,. . , , , , ,. ..... „ . s 



, • , i , .. , , • ,-, , , ,, . . ,.„ will be thankful tor the glimpse which is given of the condition 



which has been made during the past year, bv the only scientific . , „ . . ° . 



o • * • nr i r< y i'ii i'h'j i i n i and numbers at the race now passmg away from the prairies and 



Society in Western Canada, which has hitherto been bold enough . . ; ^ . . ° . l 



.,.., , » .. .. „ , forests ot the British Possessions m America. "The time may 



to publish a record ot its transactions. So numerous and yet so , . J 



»' vi i i j a- i. i i • ■ jl n *• -i a n °t be * ar remote when posterity may be counting its last rem- 



fruitless had tormer enorts been to sustain m full activity a So- ....,'■. J ° 



■ . , . j . • , . c i . , , . , ., .-, . , ., nants, and wishing that we in our day had been more alive to 



ciety devoted to scientific and industrial pursuits, that when it , ..,.". . . 



, . , ■., , ' , the tacts, and more industrious in setting up marks by which we 



was proposed — not much more than two years ago — to place the . . . . . . 



r. ,. T .... . , , , . , . ■,,. i ... might measure the ebbing tide, and comprehend the destiny 



Canadian Institute upon a broad basis, and to publish its tran- ,° ?. ( ' , . J 



j. x. . ,, !ii i •.,; i ,. i, about to be consummated. '•• Meteorologists will acknowledge 



sactions, tew, but those who laboured unremittingly tor the ac- & ° 



V1 . j,.i . , • . • -j • ,. the worth of the elaborate monthly tables of temperature, mag- 



comphshment of that object, imagined more encouraging results . . ■'- . l . 



,, ,, i • i t i i. i i j.i • j i /, -i ne f lc disturbances, barometric fluctuations, rainfall, &c, which 



than those which had been already attained by some ot its pre- ' ' 



, m, . „ , ., , , , ,, , emanate from the Provincial Magnetical Observatory, and from 



decessors. 1 he experiment, tor such it undoubtedly was, has . . ° . •■' 



i • , . . , , ., , , , , . v, ., . the private Observatory ol Dr. Smallwood, in Lower Canada, 



been eminently successful, and the monthly records of the past _, , J . . 



a . » ., T ... . ™ , ., , ,, 7--., lhe hourly corrections of the Thermometer m Canada, derived 



Session ot the Institute afford the strono-est assurance that its . J 



, , . . , . , ,°, » , . . ., trom seven years of hourly observations at Toronto, will convey 



general design was wisely conceived, and the enorts to sustain it.. . J J ' . . J 



. .. . , intormation to future observers of the most valuable description, 



spirited and generous. . ,■,-,, -,,.,, , , 



which would, probably, have never seen the light but for the 



Although much has been already accomplished, and the first Canadian Institute, f Our readers will recognize with pleasure 

 impulse given to the representation of the interests of Science and the local direction taken by many of the authors of the papers 

 the Industrial Arts in this Province, we are fully aware that the read before the Society at its weekly meetings. We venture to 

 Society will not yet admit of any relaxation in the support and say that there is no surer way of awakening an interest in tha 

 co-operation of its promoters. It will require the continuance of study of Natural Science, than by selecting those departments for 

 active exertion for several j-ears in order to combine that intel- discussion which will permit of illustrations being brought from 

 lectual strength which matured and well-directed associations our forests, rivers, fields or rocks. Among the contributions to 

 ahnost invariably command. That the Canadian Institute will the Society's transactions, having a local or Canadian interest, we 

 grow with the growth and strengthen with the strength of the may mention: — "The Mineral Springs of Canada;" "The Pro- 

 country it represents, we do not for a moment question ; but, in vincial Currency ;" " The Valley of the Nottawasaga ;" " The 

 order to arrive rapidly at the age of entire self-reliance, when it Poisonous Plants in the neighbourhood of Toronto ;" " The Rocks 

 will draw to itself that literary support which it has hitherto so- of Toronto," and " The Land Birds wintering near Toronto." 

 licited, the undiminished exertions of its present members arc 



still in request. On the score of pecuniary resources, there is The subjects brought under the notice of the Institute during 



happily neither difficulty or doubt. The Provincial Government, tlle last Session, will naturally attract the attention of those who 



with a liberality which cannot fail to secure the gratitude of all interest themselves so far in its proceedings, as to endeavour to 



who can appreciate its value, has extended its powerful arm to discover the tendencies of the Society from its transactions. Out 



lift into active and vigorous life the youngest of Canadian So- of seventeen papers communicated during the Session of 1850-'l 



cieties. It will be a source of lasting benefit to its present and and 1851-2, no less than ten treated on topics relating to the 



future members, to be able to recognize some of the fruits of that Engineering and Surveying professions ; whereas, out of fourteen 



timely aid in the form of well-filled library shelves and a grow- P a P ers read before the Society dm-ing the Session of 1852-'3, 



ing museum of Industry and Art. vei 7 few allusions were made by members to subjects bearing 



. directly upon those professions. We give below a classification 



Embracing now nearly three hundred members, scattered over „ ,-, , • , , , , ,, „ . , , . ., ,. . ., 



° ; J ... ot the papers submitted to the Society during the last three 

 every part of the Province, the Institute is rapidly becoming the 



acknowledged centre of practical and theoretical Science, as well 



as of Literature, in Western Canada, — a country whose sudden 1850, 1 and 2. 



increase in wealth and population, whose astounding progress in Engineering and Surveying 10 



railway enterprise and commercial activity, are unmistakeable an- Geology and Physical Geography 6 



nouncements of her social and political progress, and significant & ^ 



indications of her future destiny. May we not also see in the *On the probable numbers of the nalive Indian population of British America, 



sudden spring of the Canadian Institute, from the weakness of ^jL^o^Mst"' M " "'^ " ,e Ca " adia " ln31iline ' May '' 185 "- See 



t See Can. Jour., vol. 1, p. 77. 



Vol. 2, No. 1, August, 1853. 



