592 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



we may name Hon. H. Beaugrand (ex-Mayor of Montreal), Dr. 

 Louis Frechette (laureat of the French Academy), Mr. W. J. 

 White, Mr. Henry Carter, Dr. Robert Bell, F. G. S., Dr. Beers, 

 Dr. Le May, Dr. Kingsford, F. R. S. Can., and Dr. 8. E. Dawson, 

 Queen's printer. Several informal meetings were held during the 

 winter of 1892, and in April of that year a permanent organiza- 

 tion was effected.* The membership roll shows a list of about 

 sixty names. Many interesting papers have been read at the 

 meetings, and the social element has been combined with serious 

 study in a most delightful manner. 



It is hardly necessary to call attention to the opportunities for 

 the study of folk lore in Canada. This has been done by Mr. 

 Reade in a very suggestive paper read before the Montreal so- 

 ciety, f We need only refer to the mingling of races in Canada. 

 The Indian tribes of the Northwest ; the descendants of the pio- 

 neers of French Canada, of the loyalists, and of the Scotch, Irish, 

 English, and Germans; the scattered settlements of Russians, 

 Hungarians, Norsemen, Chinese, etc., in western Canada — these 

 folk afford as rich field for inquiries of the folk-lorist as he or she 

 would desire. Some curious items of superstition, or traditionary 

 lore, found in the provinces, have been collected, but much re- 

 mains in the mouths of the folk, the plain people in country 

 towns and districts. Meanwhile a series of investigations relat- 

 ing to the Indian tribes of the Northwest are going on under the 

 auspices of the British Association for the Advancement of Sci- 

 ence, aided by the Canadian Government. 



The New York branch of the American Folk-lore Society was 

 organized in February of this year. J The membership at the 

 first meeting was about forty ; it is now double that number. The 

 metropolis has become the stamping-ground for representatives of 

 all the nations of the earth. There are old-fashioned people as 

 well as Huns and Vandals in New York. The right person will 

 find plenty of folk lore in the " quarters " of the Italians, Poles, 

 Jews, Czechs, Hungarians, Chinese, etc. Within a radius of one 

 hundred miles around the city there are settlements that would 

 furnish the material eagerly wanted by the Folk-lore Society. 



* The officers of the Montreal branch of the American Folk-lore Society for 1893 are 

 as follows : President, Prof. D. P. Penhallow, McGill University ; vice-presidents, M. Louis 

 Frechette and Mr. John Reade ; secretary, Mr. F. E. Came ; treasurer, Mr. W. J. White ; 

 ladies' committee, Mrs. Robert Reid, Mrs. L. Frechette, Mrs. H. B. Ames, Mrs. K. Boisse- 

 vain, Miss Macdonnell, and Miss Van Home. 



f Published in the Dominion Illustrated Monthly for June, 1892. 



\ The officers of this branch are as follows : President, Dr. H. Carrington Bolton ; first 

 vice-president, Mr. George Bird Grinnell ; second vice-president, Mr. Richard Watson 

 Gilder ; secretary, Mr. William B. Tuthill ; treasurer, Mr. Sydney A. Smith ; ladies' com- 

 mittee, Mrs. Henry Draper, Mrs. Harriet M. Converse, and Mrs. Mary J. Field. 



