THE CANADIAN NATURALIST AND Quarterly Journal of Science. ANNUAL ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF MONTREAL, PRINCIPAL DAWSON, LL.D., F.R.S. Delivered May 19th, 1871. The first duty which devolves upon me in this address is a mournful one-that of referring to the departure from among us of two of our youngest and yet most useful and promising members, Mr. Alexander S. Ritchie, and Mr. Edward Hartley. Mr. Ritchie died in December last, at the age of 34. He had been connected with the Society for six years, and had contributed to our proceedings seven original papers on Entomology and Microscopy. His papers were characterized by minute and painstaking research, and the facts which he studied were presented in a distinct and lucid manner and often very effectively. He was for some time a member of the Council and of the Editing Committee, and at the time of his death occupied the honourable and useful position of Chairman of the Council. In Mr. Ritchie we have lost a man always ready for any useful work, and while active and enthusiastic, most gentle and unobtrusive in his manner, and thoroughly to be relied on for the performance of all that he undertook to do. Mr. Edward Hartley was a still younger man, and for a shorter time a member of this Society. He was born in Montreal, but received his scientific education at the Sheffield School of Yale College, and was for some time engaged in mineral surveys in the VOL. VI. No. 1. United States. He subsequently became attached to the Geological Survey of Canada, and was employed more especially in the coal-fields of Nova Scotia, on which he prepared two elaborate and most valuable reports: one on the structure of a part of the Pictou coal-field, the other on the quality of the coals of Pictou. While in the midst of these useful labors he was suddenly struck down by disease, at the early age of 23. Mr. Hartley was a Fellow of the Geological Societies of London and of France, a member of the Institute of Civil Engineers of Scotland, and of the Institute of Mining Engineers of the North of England, and of various local societies. His attainments in Mineralogy, in Geology and in Mining Engineering were extraordinary for his years. and gave promise of a brilliant career. Science in Montreal can little afford to lose two such men. THE SCIENTIFIC PAPERS PRESENTED to the Society in the past year have been numerous and valuable and most of them have been printed in full in our journal, the Canadian Naturalist. The following may be especially mentioned: "Aquaria Studies," Part 2d, by Mr. A. S. Ritchie; "On a specimen of Beluga recently discovered at Cornwall, Ontario," by E. Billings, Esq., F. G. S. "On the Earthquake of October 20th, 1870," by Principal Dawson, F. R. S.; "On Canadian Phosphates, in their application to Agriculture," by Gordon Broome, F.G.S.; "On the Origin of Granite," by G. A. Kinahan, Esq., of Dublin; "Notes on Vegetable Productions,; by Major G. E. Bulger; "On the species of Deer inhabiting Canada," by Prof. R. Bell, F. G. S.; "On the Sanitary Condition of Montreal," by Dr. P. P. Carpenter; "On the Foraminifera of the Gulf and River St. Lawrence," by G. M. Dawson; "On Canadian Foraminifera," by J. F. Whiteaves, F. G. S.; "On some New Facts in Fossil Botany," by Principal Dawson, F. R. S. ; "On the occurrence of Diamonds in New South Wales, " by Mr. Norman Taylor, and Prof. A. Thompson; communicated by A. R. C. Selwyn Esq., F. G. S.; "On the Structure and affinities of the Brachiopoda," by Prof. Morse; "On a Mineral Silicate injecting Palæozoic Crinoids," by Dr. T. Sterry Hunt, F. R. S. "On the Origin and Classification of Crystalline Rocks, " by Mr. Thomas Macfarlane; "On the Plants of the West Coast of Newfoundland," by John Bell, M. A., M. D.; "On Canadian Diato maceæ," by Mr. W. Osler; "On the Botany of the Counties of Hastings and Addington," by B. J. Harrington, B. A. |