September 19, 1884. 



SCIENCE 



283 



which Capt. Pim declared no one knows the position) 

 should be visited, and a large number of accurate 

 observations there taken. 



A lunch was given to the two lieutenants in the 

 afternoon, but nothing was then said of geographical 

 importance. 



Mr. K. G. Haliburton said that he considered the 

 saga of Eric the Red, describing the voyage of his 

 son Leif to Vinland, a poetic version of Bjarne's 

 voyage reversed. Eric, driven from Norway, and 

 afterwards from Iceland, discovered a dreary country, 

 which he called Greenland, avowedly to attract emi- 

 grants thither. Subsequently the land sighted by 

 Bjarne, and visited and colonized by Eric's family, 

 was called by them, evidently for the same object, 

 Vinland the Good. The length of the shortest day, 

 the presence of Eskimos, the Norse maps, and geo- 

 graphical notices, all show that Vinland could not 

 have been south of the north-western part of New- 

 foundland. 



Mr. Haliburton also said that recently discovered 

 Portuguese documents prove that the next oldest 

 colony in America was Terra nova, embracing Lab- 

 rador, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia, which was 

 explored by the Corte Reals in 1500-1502 ; and that 

 commissions were regularly issued to them as govern- 

 ors up to 1579. In 1521 a patent was issued to Fa- 

 gundes of all the lands between the Spanish colonies 

 and 'the land of the Corte Reals.' He had recently 

 discovered, while in the Azores, that two Portuguese 

 colonies sailed thence to Cape Breton in 1521 and 

 1567, probably to St. Peters and Ingonische. The 

 Spaniards, who annexed Portugal to Spain in 1580, 

 sent a colony to Spanish Harbour (Sydney) between 

 1580 and 1597. He added that Cape Race (Cabo raso 

 — 'bare cape'), the Bay of Fundy (Fonda — 'deep'), 

 and other Portuguese names, still tell of this ' lost 

 colony.' 



The Rev. Abbe Laflamme then said, that the 

 province of Quebee may be divided into two hydro- 

 graphic basins, — that of the St. Lawrence, and that 

 formed by the collection of lakes which fed the rivers 

 flowing into Hudson's Bay. The name of only one 

 of these lakes was known, — lake Mistassimi. It was 

 certain, however, that there were many others of 

 great size in its vicinity and on the peninsula of 

 Labrador. He declared that all the maps hitherto 

 published of lake Mistassimi were inexact. One thing 

 only was certain, and that was, that it was larger than 

 lake Ontario. 



Professor W. Boyd Dawkins maintained that the 

 former connection of North America with Green- 

 land, Iceland, and north-western Europe is most 

 conclusively proved by the distribution of the fossil 

 plants and animals in the eocene and miocene ages. 

 The tract of comparatively shallow water ranging 

 from Greenland past Iceland to the Faroes and north- 

 ern Scotland, and which isolates the deep waters of 

 the Arctic sea from the depths of the Atlantic, formed 

 the bridge across which the migration took place, the 

 four-hundred-fathom line representing approximately 

 the line of the ancient shores. The barrier became 

 submerged towards the close of the miocene age; 



and then, for the first time, the Arctic waters united 

 with the Atlantic, and arctic shells gradually found 

 their way southwards into the area of the British 

 isles. 



Mr. J. S. O'Halloran then presented a memorandum 

 with regard to Winnecke's exploration of central Aus- 

 tralia, with notes on the employment of camels, and 

 some extracts from his journals. The reference to 

 camels reminded Mr. Torrance that they were for- 

 merly employed in British Columbia, but that the 

 smell of the beasts so terrified horses that the govern^ 

 ment ordered their use to be discontinued. 



The president of the section then made some re- 

 marks about the poor attendance at some of the meet- 

 ings, — at one time there were but four persons 

 present, besides the officers and reporters, — which he 

 attributed to the unfortunate position of the building 

 in which the meetings were held ; and the section was 

 then adjourned. 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE SECTION OF 

 ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS. 



This section has been in existence almost from the 

 foundation of the British association, having been 

 organized as a section of statistics in 1833 : econom- 

 ics were added in 1856. The range of topics con- 

 sidered has been very wide, and has included such 

 topics as population, mortality, emigration, labor, 

 crime, punishments, debt, wealth, trade, coinage, 

 banking, insurance, poor-laws, schools, libraries, sani- 

 tary regulations, water-supply, pollutions of rivers, 

 forestry, agriculture, stock-raising, imports and ex- 

 ports. 



The section assembled at eleven o'clock on Thurs- 

 day, in Synod hall, several blocks distant from 

 McGill college, where most of the sections were 

 located. Nevertheless, about 140 persons were pres- 

 ent to listen to the address of the sectional presi- 

 dent, Sir Richard Temple, of London, upon the 

 general statistics of the British empire. 1 It was no- 

 ticeable that the applause occurred when reference 

 was made to the superiority of Great Britain, and but 

 once when comparisons showed the United States to 

 be superior to the empire. A vote of thanks was pro- 

 posed by Prof. J. Clark Murray, of Montreal, and 

 was supported by Mr. Edward Atkinson of Boston, 

 who highly complimented Sir Richard Temple for his 

 efforts in founding the school of British economical 

 science. Professor Murray thought this section would 

 be more interesting to Canada than any other; be- 

 cause, 1° it was not so abstruse, and 2° it treated of 

 matters of vital importance to Canadian voters. He 

 hoped soon to see a chair of economic science in 

 McGill college. 



Sir Richard Temple said he would accord the place 

 of honor to the United States, and called on Mr. At- 

 kinson to read the first paper, entitled ' What makes 

 the rate of wages.' Mr. Atkinson said that the argu- 

 ment of Mr. Henry George in his 'Progress and pov- 

 erty,' that the rich are growing richer, and the poor 

 1 The address is printed in abstract in Science of Sept. 5, p. 214. 



