THE CANADIAN JOURNAL.

NEW SERIES.

No. I. JANUARY, 1856.

PRELIMINARY ADDRESS.

THE first number of the "Canadian Journal" was published in August 1852, under the direction of the Council of the Canadian Institute, as "a medium of communication between all engaged or interested in scientific or industrial pursuits." As the organ of the Canadian Institute, it has contributed to the advancement of that society and shared in its success, until the number of members and subscribers has outgrown the original issue, and led to the closing of its first series.

A few words will suffice to define the objects aimed at in this new Series. The advancement of Canada in commercial and agricultural prosperity during recent years, is without a parallel in the history of the British Colonies; and there is abundant reason for believing that it is even now only on the threshold of a career of triumphant progress. It must be the desire of every well-wisher of the province, that this advancement in industry and material wealth, should not be unaccompanied by some corresponding manifestations of intellectual vitality. There is no reason why Canada should not have her own literature and science, as well as her agriculture and commerce; and contribute her share to the greatness of the British Empire by her mental as well as her physical achievements. Already the published Reports of the Magnetic and Meteorological Observatory have made the name of Toronto familiar to European savans; and the labors of the Provincial Geological Survey, under the guidance of Mr. Logan, have contributed results, the scientific value of which is universally recognised. But, meanwhile, such students of science as Canada has,

stand, to a great extent, isolated in relation to each other, and look mainly for the appreciation of their labors to their scientific brethren in Europe. If Mr. Logan meets with copper or coal in the course of his geological survey, he communicates it to Canada, and all her journals give welcome circulation to the fact; but if his palæontological researches among our Canadian strata disclose novel truths in relation to the structure of the Graptolite, he goes to Paris or to London with the discovery, and communicates it to his scientific brethren-as Mr. Dawson originally published his Acadian geological observations, through the medium of English Societies' Transactions. Thus the science of Canada has, as yet, no recognised or independent existence, and its students, if they would place themselves in rapport with those of other lands, can only do so by a sacrifice analogous to the naturalization by which a foreign emigrant attains to the privileges of American citizenship.

Subjects requiring such a medium of communication cannot be profitably treated of in a popular form. An enquiry into the action of the solar rays on nitrate of silver would doubtless appear sufficiently "caviare to the general," and yet its direct daguerrean photographic results are among the most popular of modern technological processes. The world hails with grateful plaudits the completion of an electric telegraph, forgetful of the indifference and incredulity awarded to such preliminary labours as those of Galvani, of which it is the product. If, therefore, we are to acquire such honors and rewards for ourselves, we must be contented to pursue the process through all its preliminary stages; and if we would have an economic and utilitarian science, the first step must be to afford facilities and encouragement for those who devote themselves to science, not for such utilitarian results, but for its own sake, for its abstract truths, and without a thought of the economic rewards to which they lead.

For such students of science, few as they must of necessity be in a new country like Canada, a medium of communication is required, to furnish a means of intercourse among themselves, as well as of interchange of thought and discovery with the scientific world at large. Such a medium this Journal is designed to afford. It is impossible to speak too modestly of its immediate operations. Science cannot be called into being by a wave of the editorial goosequill, nor will a provincial literature rise up to meet the first demands consequent on the discovery of its absence. Yet here, perhaps, we may not unfitly apply the trite proverb: "c'est le premier pas qui coûte." In some of these first steps we must claim the forbearance of the

general reader. Perhaps it may be permissible to note as one of the most essential characteristics of European scientific journals that they recognise no such class of readers. No communication can be too minute, technical, or abstruse for them, so long as it involves any element of scientific truth; and we trust to have the concurrence of all

our readers in our purpose to open the pages of this Journal to strictly scientific communications, however unattractive the form may be in which they are presented.

In such departments as Geology and Mineralogy, Philology, Ethnology, Chemistry, or Mathematics, if this Journal does not prove an altogether premature and untimely birth, occasional communications must be looked for in a form appreciable only by a very limited class of its readers. Such communications, however, we have rather to fear than to hope, will be few; and the greatest amount of success which can now be anticipated, is to sow a few of the first seeds for a future harvest of science. In so doing it may be permitted to one Provincial journal to cater for something higher than popular gratification. Nevertheless it will be seen that our aim is essentially practical, and while we seek rather to make the Journal useful than popular, the latter element will not be overlooked. Nor need it be so. Science has also its popular aspects, and literary criticism may legitimately embrace much which has charms for a variety of tastes. Enquiries into the varied resources and the mineral wealth of the country, and reports of the progress of the great engineering works of the Province must possess attractions for a still greater number. The disclosures of Geology include points appreciable by all as of the highest practical importance. Chemistry eliminates from recondite processes simplifications in the productions of the commonest manufactures, and discovers products of great commercial value. And while those enquiries yield such returns, the students of Natural Philosophy, Agricultural Science, and Natural History, have in each of their departments fields of investigation which cannot fail, when zealously explored, to contribute results of widely varied interest.

By and by, we doubt not, Canada will be able to maintain a literature which shall embrace independent representatives in each department of knowledge. But the time for such a division of labour lies still in the future; and meanwhile the conductors of the "Canadian Journal" must ask equally for the charitable judgment of the scientific and of the popular reader. Specially would they crave the generous forbearance of the men of science of Europe, among whom it is hoped that those communications may be received in exchange for the scientific records of their long matured labours, and of the

fruits of their well-organised system of mutual cooperation. These first efforts cannot be otherwise than feeble, and the steps of their progress slow and unequal. But if the progress be real, however slow, they are well contented to find their reward in the hope that other men shall enter into their labours, and reap where they have

sown.

DISPLACEMENT AND EXTINCTION AMONG THE
PRIMEVAL RACES OF MAN.

BY DANIEL WILSON, LL.D.

PROFESSOR OF HISTORY AND ENGLISH LITERATURE, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, TORONTO.

Read before the Canadian Institute, December 1st, 1855.

Among the many difficult problems which the thoughtful observer has to encounter, in an attempt to harmonise the actual with his ideal of the world as the great theatre of the human race, none assumes a more intricate and inexplicable aspect than the displacement and extinction of races, such as the Anglo-Saxon has witnessed on this continent for upwards of two centuries. In all ages history discloses to us unmistakeable evidence, not only of the distinctions which civilization produces, but of the fundamental differences whereby a few highly favoured races have outsped all others; triumphing in the onward progress of the nations, not less by an innate constitutional superiority, than by an acquired civilization, or by local advantages. And if we are still troubled with the perplexities of this dark riddle, whereby the Colonists of the new world only advance by the retrogression of the Red Man, and tread, in our western progress, on the graves of nations, it may not be without its interest to note some unmistakeable evidences of this process of displacement and extinction, accompanying the progress of the human race from the very dawn of its history.

One, and only one record supplies any authoritative or credible statement relative to the origin of the human race. Geology has indeed, by its negative evidence, confirmed in its response the inspired answer of the patriarch: "Enquire of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers, for we are but of yesterday;" but it is to the Mosaic record we must turn for any definite statement on a subject concerning which the mythologies of all nations have professed to furnish some information. Every attentive reader of the Bible must have observed that the Book of Genesis, or the Beginning, is