for a year or two the possibility of starting a society devoted to the investigation of the natural history of the vicinity, and, having resolved to try it, they issued a few circulars, called a meeting, which was attended by some forty gentlemen, drew up a few rules, and established the association. The object is so praiseworthy, and the plan so well worth imitating in other places, that some account of the operations of this club may prove acceptable to many readers.
The club was organized by the appointment of a President, two Vice Presidents, a Secretary-Treasurer, and a committee of five other members, all of whom are to constitute a Council of Management. Ladies and gentlemen desiring to join the club may become members by paying a fee of fifty cents a year. The club secures its objects by means of excursions in the summer for making observations and collecting specimens; and by holding evening meetings and soirées in the winter for reading papers, discussion, and exhibition, and the display and comparison of natural history objects, the general direction of these proceedings being vested in the Council.
The Council reports at the end of the first year that the work has gone on satisfactorily so as to afford every encouragement for continuing it. Large numbers, of course, do not take to such projects as this; and of those who do, or who join with entire good will, only a small portion have interest enough in the objects to be attained to discharge well the duties of membership. This is always to be counted upon in such undertakings, and should wisely moderate the expectations of the more sanguine. We are informed that the Council met twenty times during the year for the transaction of business, at irregular intervals, as occasion required; and at these meetings there was an average attendance of nearly seven out of nine of the Councilors. This certainly shows well, but the officers were of course picked for their interest in the work. The members were less dutiful. There were five excursions in the course of the summer to attractive points in the vicinity of Ottawa, but only a small part of the members accompanied them. This indifference is thus referred to in the annual report: "The Council feel compelled to express their regret that, although these excursions were to the most interesting places in the neighborhood, and the price of tickets put so low that three of them did not pay expenses, so few of the members thought them worth attending. It does not say much for the interest the members take in the club's work, that, with a membership of over eighty, the average attendance at the excursions should be only thirty, fully one third of whom were visitors; and they hope that during the coming season the excursions will be better supported by the members of the club."
But if the members did not care to go on the summer expeditions, they were less remiss when it came to the winter meetings. The winter course of soirées and conversaziones was successful in every respect. There was a well-sustained attendance, and the papers read were not only of considerable range but also of serious scientific interest. They were on the following subjects: 1. "Inaugural Address," on the pleasure of understanding common objects; 2. "Graphite of the Ottawa Valley"; 3. "On the Forms and Structures of some Spongillæ found in the Ottawa"; 4. "The Connection of Botany with Mythology"; 5. "Cystidian Life"; 6. "Museum Education"; 7. "On the Contractility of the Spores of Palmella Hyalina"; 8. "Asbestos"; 9. "A Practical Demonstration of the Human Brain"; 10. "Design in Nature"; 11. "Land and Fresh-water Shells of the Ottawa Valley"; 12."On some Insects captured at our Excursions"; 13. "On some Plants collected during our
