﻿400 Canadian Recmxl of Science. 



possibility tlie scientific welfare of a locality is promoted 

 by its being the scene of such a meeting, the claims should 

 be fully recognised of those who, though not dwelling 

 in the British Isles, are still inhabitants of that Greater 

 Britain whose prosperity is so intimately connected with 

 the fortunes of the Mother Country. 



Here, especially, as loyal subjects of one beloved 

 Sovereign, the sixtieth year of whose beneficent reign has 

 just been celebrated with equal rejoicing in all parts 

 of her Empire ; as speaking the same tongue, and as 

 in most instances connected by the ties of one common 

 parentage, we are bound together in all that can promote 

 our common interests. 



There is, in all probability, nothing that will tend more 

 to advance those interests than the diffusion of science in 

 all parts of the British Empire, and it is towards this end 

 that the aspirations of the British Association are ever 

 directed, even if in many instances the aim may not 

 be attained. 



We are, as already mentioned, indebted to Canada for 

 previous hospitality, but we must also remember that, 

 since the time when we last assembled on this side of the 

 Atlantic, the Dominion has provided the Association with 

 a President, Sir William Dawson, whose name is alike 

 well known in Britain and America, and whose reputation 

 is indeed world wide. We rejoice that we have still 

 among us the pioneer of American geology, who among 

 other discoveries first made us acquainted with the " Air- 

 breathers of the Coal," the terrestrial or more properly 

 arboreal Saurians of the New Brunswick and Nova Scotia 

 Coal-measures. 



On our last visit to Canada, in 1884, our place of 

 assembly was Montreal, a city which is justly proud 

 of her McGill University ; to-day we meet within the 

 buildings of another of the Universities of this vast 

 Dominion — and in a city, the absolute fitness of which for 



