398 



ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COUNCIL, 1855. 



[1855. 



Hon. P. de Bla- 



quifere. 



*Tho Upper Canada Journal 1' 



*Keport on Cause of Fire in Parliament Build- 

 ings, 1854 1 



*Report on North Shore Eailway 1 



*Report on Admiralty Tariff of Fees 1 



♦Return — Contracts to the Junction Canal 1 



" Schools in the Ottawa District 2 



" connected with Grand Trunk RaOroad 1 



" Montreal Harbour 1 



♦Papers — Late WeUand Canal Company 1 



♦Statement of Expenditure of £30,000 in aid 

 of Settling "Vacant Lands in Lower Canada... 3 



♦County Lotbinere Election Committee 1 



♦Report — Catalogue of Books in Library of the 



LegislatiTe Assembly 1 



♦Orders of the Court of Chancery 2 



♦Dispatches — referring to Seignoreal Tenure in 



Lower Canada 1 



♦Estimate of Expenses of Civil Government, 1853 1 

 ♦Loose Sheets — The Statutes of Canada. 

 ♦Logan's Geological Survey — Report of Pro- 

 gress, 1848-49 1 



♦Do. 1850-51 1 



♦Do. 1851-52 1 



58, 



The above list of donations, it will be observed, includes no 

 additions to the Museum. This, there can be little doubt, is 

 mainly ascribable to the want of any adequate means for the 

 classification or display of the objects acquired for this pur- 

 pose ; and it is with sincere satisfaction that the Council 

 anticipate the speedy possession by the Institute of a Hall for 

 its Museum, wherein may be accumulated illustrations of 

 every branch of science, and of the historical antiquities and 

 ethnological relics specially pertaining to the aboriginal races 

 of Canada and the New World. 



The following papers have been read at the ordinary meet- 

 ings of the Institute, during the session 1854-5 : — 



Communications* 



H. Cowing, Esq.—-" Description of anew Steam Plough and Portable 

 Steam Engine for general purposes," with illustrative plans. 

 2nd Dec, 1854. 



Prof. BovELL, M.D. — " On some specimens of Infusoria obtained 

 from Rice Lake and the River Humber, — and on an interesting 

 specimen of Pluraatella found in Bice Lake." 16th Dec, 1854. 



Prof. BovELL, M.D. — " Remarks on the Respiratory Organs of the 

 Lobster, — and on some peculiarities of the Intestinal Canal of 

 the Bear;" illustrated by prepared specimens. 16th Dec, 1854. 



Prof. Wilson, LL.D. — "On some Conchological Relics of the Red 

 Indians of Western Canada, illustrated by specimens of shells 

 and other relics taken from Indian Mounds near Lake Huron." 

 6th Jan., 1855. 



Professors Irvino and Chekkiman — " On the Eclipse of May 26th, 

 1854." 13th Jan., 1855. 



Prof. Chapman — " Some observations on Carbonate of Lime as an 

 igneous product." 13th Jan., 1855. 



Prof. Chapman — " On the object of the Salt condition of the Sea." 

 20th Jan., 1855. 



Prof. Chebeiman, M.A. — " On the Meterological results of 1854." 

 20th January, 1855. 



Prof. BovELL, M.D. — "On the transfusion of Milk, as practised in 

 the Cholera Sheds at Toronto in 1854." 27th Jan., 1855. 



Prof. Wilson, LL.D. — " On traces of the use of Moveable Types, 

 and imprinting with Coloured Pigments, amongst the Romans 

 of the Second and Third Centuries." 27th Jan., 1855. 



Major Laohlan — " An account of an extraordinary Sudden Fall in 

 the Waters of the Niagara River, in March 1848, caused by a 

 temporary obstruction of the outlet of Lake Erie by Ice." 

 3rd February, 1855. 



Prof. Hind, M.A. — " A Practical Illustration of a mode of Manu- 

 facturing Gun Cotton." 3rd February, 1855. 



Thos. Henning, Esq. — " On the Asteroids," 10th February, 1855. 



Professor Bovell, M.D. — "Some Observations on Microscopic Pre- 



parations of Chalk, from Barbadoes, containing Fossil Infu- 

 soria." 10th February, 1855. 



SANDroBD Fleming, Esq., C.E. — " Explanation and Mode of Use of 

 Sang's Platometer." 17th February, 1855. 



Professor Wilson, LL.D. — "On Some Physical Elements of Ethno- 

 logical Classification, and their Bearing on the Question of 

 the Unity of the Human Race." 17th February, 1855. 



Professor Hind, M.A. — " On the North American Drift." 24th Fe- 

 bruary, 1855. 



Rev. Professor Hincks — " On the Classification of Birds." 3rd 

 March, 1855. 



Professor Ckoft, D.C.L. — "Results of Analyses of some Spurious 

 Mexican Coinage." 10th March, 1855. 



Rev. W. Bleasdell, M.A. — " On the Indian Tribes of Canada." 

 10th March, 1855. 



Major Laohlan — " On the Union of Lakes Erie and St. Clair." 

 17th March, 1855. 



T. C. Clarke, Esq., C.E.—" On Railway Truss Bridges." 17th 

 March, 1855. 



Professor Ckoft, D.C.L. — "Remarks on a Specimen of Bitumen 

 from the Western District." 17th March, 1855. 



Professor Chapman — " Description of a Convenient Method of Tabu- 

 lating the Organic Remains found in various Strata." 17th 

 March, 1855. 



Professor Hind, M.A., — "On the Origin of the Basins of the Great 

 American Lakes." 24th March, 1855. 



F. W. Cumberland, Esq., C. E. — " Notes of a Visit to the Works 

 of the Toronto and Guelph Railroad." 81st March, 1855. 



Paul Kane, Esq.- — " On the Habits and Customs of the Chinook 

 Indians." 31st March, 1855. 



Prof. Chapman. — "Additional Notes on the Saltness of the Sea, 

 being the substance of a communication to Lieut. Maury, U. S. 

 Navy, Superintendent of the Washington Observatory, arising 

 out of a Correspondence on Prof. Chapman's paper published 

 in the March No. of the Canadian Jonrnal." 14th April, 1855. 



Prof. Chapman — " Further Views and Authorities in support of ob- 

 servations on an example of igneous origin of Carbonate of 

 Lime." 14th April, 1855. 



Andrew Hood, Esq. — "Description of a new Astronomical and 

 Surveying Instrument." 14th April, 1855. 



T. C. Clarke, Esq., C. E. — " On the Action of the Ice upon the 

 Railway ISridge at Rice Lake." 21st April, 1855. 



Prof. Hind, M.A. — "On the occurrence of Crystalized Carbonate 

 of Lime in the Native Copper of Lake Superior." 21st April, 

 1855. 



Sandpord Fleming, Esq., C. E. — " Notes on the WeUand Canal." 

 21st April, 1855. 



While the Council believe that the above list includes some 

 original papers not less creditable to the Institute than any 

 that have been produced in former years, they feel precluded 

 from any special notice of them, owing to the unusually large 

 share that the members of Council have had to take in this 

 department of the ordinary proceedings. The foregoing list, 

 it will be seen, includes 33 papers, of which the very large 

 proportion of 24 have been contributed exclusively by members 

 of Council. This is a state of things which they feel it to be 

 their duty specially to bring under the notice of the members 

 at large. So numerous a body as the Institute now is, ought 

 to include a much greater number of working members ; and 

 the Council are led to believe that their apparent supineness 

 arises, in part at least, from the mistaken idea that communica- 

 tions can only be made in the form of elaborate essays. They 

 would strongly urge on their successors, and on the members 

 at large, the encouragement of brief communications, in greater 

 number, as at once more calculated to give general interest to 

 the ordinary meetings, and to elicit such results of personal 

 knowledge and observation as are best calculated to add to the 

 true value of the published proceedings. Short notices of 

 natural phenomena, features of local geology, objects of natural 

 history, and the like subjects, derived from personal observa- 

 tion, must be readily producible by many members who have 



