﻿British Association for Advancement of Science. 397 



The Meeting of the British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science. 



A few years ago our cousins to the south celebrated the 

 four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America 

 by the Spaniards. Since that time the continent has 

 been rediscovered by various nations, one of these 

 discoveries, that of Canada, having occurred in 1884 

 when the British Association met in Montreal. The 

 intrepid explorers found that instead of a howling- 

 wilderness of Arctic climate, peopled by pioneers living 

 in log cabins and constantly armed against marauding 

 Indians, the fair Dominion could boast of many of 

 the advantages of a high state of civilization, including 

 educational institutions that compared favorably with 

 those of the mother country. The travellers on returning 

 disseminated the knowledge thus obtained, and did much 

 to convert Canada into one of the (Britishally) known 

 parts of the globe. However, judging from many 

 remarks made by various members of two expeditions 

 which came here during the last summer to rediscover us 

 again (the expression is used advisedly), a thorough 

 knowledge of our country had not, up to the time of the 

 sailing of these expeditions, percolated through all the 

 strata of the population of the British Isles. We must 

 not, however, be too ready to lay all the blame upon the 

 old-country folk ; we are far too prone in descanting upon 

 the beauties of the Dominion to lay stress upon our 

 winter scenery, our snow-shoeing, our boundless prairies, 

 stupendous mountains, mighty lakes and rivers, etc., etc., 

 and are we not fond of sending across the seas samples of 

 Indian work, purporting to have come from the wigwam 

 of the feathered and untutored savage, but probably 

 manufactured in a very modern style of dwelling by 

 the light of the sun coming through glass windows or the 

 soft effulgence of an up-to-date kerosene lamp ! 



