Annual Meeting.! 
10 
[May 2, 
Expedition. 
During the summer of 1887, the Curator accompanied by Mr. 
Henry Brooks, Mr. George L. Parmelee of the Institute of Technol- 
ogy, and his son, made a trip to the islands of the northern part 
of Lake Huron. The party started on the 7th of July, reaching 
Bruce Mines on the 11th. Here a boat and an experienced man, 
a cook and a stout boy were hired, provisions laid in and the ex- 
pedition started on the 14th from Bruce Mines. We visited and 
collected on Sugar Island, St. Josephs, Drummond, Cockburn, the 
west end of Grand Manitoulin, as far as Gore Bay, and on most 
of the smaller islands lying in the North Channel, which were known 
to consist of limestone. The weather proved to be unusually dry 
and favorable, so that the party were rarely detained by rains and 
experienced no serious delays though necessarily travelling all day 
in an open boat and obliged to seek a camp every night on the 
land. 
Large collections were made from the limestones of the Silurian 
system, which form the shores of these islands. Many large and 
fine specimens of Endoceras, and especially of the rare Discosorus 
and Huronia were obtained, and also a very excellent representative 
collection of all classes of fossils from the interesting strata of this 
region. The boxes containing these fossils were shipped as op- 
portunity offered, from the different villages, or steamboat land- 
ings, visited by the party ; but, upon our return to Bruce Mines, we 
found that the different shipments had been retained at Colling- 
wood by the authorities of the Northern and North-Western rail- 
road, on the plea that the freight must be guaranteed. This was 
done through Mr. Samuel Marks of Bruce Mines, who had stood 
our friend in other matters. The company still continued to hold 
the fossils, including three large trunks, in which were packed the 
outfit of tents and camp equipage, tools, etc., belonging to the Cu- 
rator, on the plea that a consul’s certificate was needed. 
What especial purpose this would have served, except to put a 
fee in the pocket of a U. S. official, or what good this would have 
done the railroad company, nobody seemed to know. It was, how- 
ever, insisted on, and while it was being procured, the building in 
which the goods were stored took fire, and the fossils, and other 
property, were destroyed. The action of the railroad officials, in 
4his case, was rendered still more puzzling by the fact that they for- 
