President's Address. 



15 



are well worthy of our earnest study, whether we regard them 

 as means of exercising our mental powers, or as leading us to 

 higher views of Him who has created all things, and for whose 

 pleasure they are and were created. 



The followers of science have sometimes been blamed for 

 attempting to subvert religion by their speculations. There 

 can be no doubt that in former times, and even at the present 

 day, some have started theories which have a tendency to 

 shake the faith of weak naturalists. But these are opposi- 

 tions of science falsely so called, — vague theories not founded 

 on facts. There is no fear of true science in its bearings 

 on religion. It is only want of science which produces any 

 jarrings. The more we investigate the wonders of creation, 

 the more we shall see the harmony which subsists between the 

 Word and the works of God. 



I. Contributions to the Natural History of the Hudson's Bay Company's 

 Territories. Part II. — Mammalia (continued.) By Andrew Mur- 

 ray, F.R.S.E., President of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh. 



Rein-Deer (Rangifer Caribou). — In my last communica- 

 tion on this subject, I drew attention to the antlers of the 

 American rein-deer, — their peculiar form, their mode of 

 growth, and the habits of the animal, — as bearing on the 

 question of its identity with the Lapland rein- deer, and made 

 some suggestions and speculations, with the hope that they 

 might lead some of my correspondents to inquire more par- 

 ticularly into these points, and give us reliable information 

 upon them, which might enable us to come to a correct con- 

 clusion on the subject. I am happy to say, that these ob- 

 servations have had the desired effect, and that, with an 

 additional supply of horns and heads, I have this year re- 

 ceived divers remarks on the points I indicated for inquiry. 

 One intelligent correspondent, Mr J. Mackenzie of Moose 

 Factory (from whose communications I have received much 

 satisfaction), goes at some length into the subject, and his 

 information, as to the time of the year when the horns are 

 cast at the different periods of the animal's life, clears up the 

 discrepancies which have been noticed in the statements of dif- 

 ferent authors on this subject. It will be seen that the casting 



