TENTH MEETING. 15 



No traces of connection with European civilization were found in 

 any of the graves. The interments are probably to be referred to 

 the ancestors of the Mississaguas or Ojibways, and date back a con- 

 siderable period, as these Indians have been acquainted with the 

 island for over a centuiy. The Indians now at Scugog cannot 

 account for the presence of the remains, and have had nothing to do 

 with them. Mr. Chamberlain presented the collection to the museum 

 of the institute. The collection consisted of four large chisels or 

 hoes, one long and one round whetstone, some half-dozen so-called 

 shuttle stones, seven arrow heads, a bone spear head, a bone awl, a 

 bone harpoon point, several unfinished stone implements. Besides 

 these there were several pieces of deer horns, a portion of bear's 

 jaw, and other articles interred with the skeletons. 



TENTH MEETING. 



Tenth Meeting, 19th January, 1889, the President in the 

 chair. 



Exchanges since last meeting, 41. 



Messrs. Adam Morrison, William James Nelson, and A. A. 

 Dewdney were elected members. 



Mr. J. M. Clark, M.A., read a paper on " The Luminiferous 

 Ether." 



He set forth the reasons which induce men of science to believe 

 in the existence of the ether. He demonstrated not only that the 

 ether exists but also that it pervades all interstellar, intermolecular^ 

 and interatomic space. The varied and important functions per- 

 formed by the ether were described and its properties discussed. 

 The ether was shown to be a form of matter — to be a highly-atten- 

 uated substance of enormous elasticity. The particles were shown 

 to be exceedingly minute, but the velocities of the particles cor- 

 respondingly great. A calculation of the density of the ether was 

 also given, and the mass of the ether in the solar system approxi- 

 mately estimated. The paper also contained a criticism of the un- 



