it were chilled by fresh water ice from the river, which is not unlikely in the circumstances. The bottom water may enter direct from the unmixed water of the Atlantic, as a depth of over 200 fathoms extends uninterruptedly from this strait to the ocean.

"It is clear in any case that there is no cold under-current running out along the bottom of the strait, as might be expected in accordance with the theory of continuous inflow of cold water at the Strait of Belle Isle.

"The influence of the St. Lawrence upon the currents in the gulf is usually much exaggerated. It may, therefore, be well to mention that a current of only half a knot per hour through the Strait of Belle Isle would admit a volume of water forty times greater than the discharge of the St. Lawrence as measured between Montreal and Lake St. Peter. The two main currents at the two sides of Cabot Strait are the most important with reference to the interior of the gulf. It is possible that the current on the western side may have some relation to the current running outward along the Gaspé coast, and the reported direction of the current near the Magdalen Islands seems to make this the less improbable. The current along the west coast of Newfoundland might possibly prove to be a continuation of the inward current on the eastern side of Cabot Strait. Further to the northeast, in the narrower part of the gulf towards the Strait of Belle Isle, the current was also found on one occasion to be running from the westward at both sides simultaneously, but the circumstances appear then to have been exceptional, as already pointed out.

"These suggestions are made to show that the currents in Cabot Strait require to be further traced, and this should be done both within and without the strait, and the facts already ascertained will be helpful as a basis in doing so. It may also prove of importance to follow the progressive change of temperature in these currents from the early spring throughout the summer, as this should give light as to the nature of these currents, and would also help in tracing their direction and influence.

"There is thus an ample choice in deciding upon the best direction in which to carry forward the survey of the currents from the basis already obtained. It will also be possible to speak with greater certainty regarding these currents when they have been more extensively followed and investigated."

11. THE PROPOSED CABOT CELEBRATION.

Some interest has been taken by a few historical students in the suggestion that was made last year in the report of the council of the Royal Society that there should be a celebration in Canada on the twenty-fourth day of June, 1897, in honour of John Cabot, who, four centuries ago, in a British ship, manned by English sailors, sailed under the authority of

Henry VII. of England to find a northwest passage to Asia, and succeeded in landing and planting the English flag somewhere on the eastern coast of British North America, in all probability on the shores of the island of Cape Breton.

The learned paper printed by Dr. S. E. Dawson in the twelfth volume of the Transactions on the Cabot voyages of 1497 and 1498, gives additional force to the English claim of having first sailed along the coast of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Atlantic sea-board of Nova Scotia, and of the United States as far even as Florida.

So interesting an event in Canadian history seems worthy of commemoration in a tangible shape, and it is therefore recommended that a committee be appointed by the Royal Society to consider the advisability of raising a granite shaft at some point in the province of Nova Scotia.

The general meeting of 1897 could be held on the 24th of June in the city of Halifax for the express purpose.

Little is known of the personal character of John Cabot, and, indeed, his fame has been much obscured by indiscreet eulogists of his son Sebastian, to whom has been given much of that reputation that history now properly ascribes to his father. None of that glamour of romance that must always encircle his Italian countryman, Columbus, has been thrown about the equally intrepid navigator John Cabot, but it is sufficient for our purpose to know that his claim to have been the first to land on Canadian shores is now well established.

Far less of the historic doubt that still surrounds the voyages of the Northmen, nine centuries ago, obscures the record of Cabot's expeditions, and it seems now only an act of justice to a courageous sailor, to whom England and Canada owe so much, that he should not be forgotten, while the Scandinavian, Lief Erricsson, has a monument standing in his honour in the city of Boston.

In the previous reference to this subject the council quoted the eulogistic words of the eminent English geographical scholar, Clement R. Markham, who, like many other eminent writers of these times, has fully recognized the high place of John Cabot among the greatest navigators of the age in which Columbus lived.

His latest biographer, Francesco Tarducci, who successfully claims him as a Venetian by birth, says also with justice:

"It seems to me that one of the very first places in the history of discoveries belongs to John Cabot.

"In these last years the truth has finally triumphed, and the documents found, though few in numbers, yet sufficient for the purpose, have restored to him the light that was due him, and drawn his figure out of the shade and places it in full view.

"For, without any impulse or guidance from others, by the mere force of his will and strength of his enthusiasm, he raised himself far

above the ordinary navigator, and, launching into the fearful solitude of northern oceans, won a new world for England.

"True, he had his son Sebastian for a companion in his victory, but that son was not yet twenty years old in 1497, and could give but little aid to his father.

"If the work of the younger, in a later voyage, was very efficient, it is still John Cabot that led the victorious expedition; to him alone is the discovery of 1497 to be ascribed, and it is his name alone that should receive the acclaim of the English nation.

"If the expedition of 1498 was brought back by the son, it was still unquestionably prepared and for a time conducted by his aged and experienced father.

"No low place can then be assigned to John Cabot in the glorious roll of the discoverers of four centuries ago, but he may be justly placed among the highest, very near the great chief that led them all, the Genoese, Christopher Columbus."

12. FREE PUBLIC LIBRARIES.

The council of the Royal Society have much pleasure in calling attention to an agitation which the National Council of Women, under the earnest presidency of her Excellency the Countess of Aberdeen, has commenced in favour of the establishment of a free public library in the city of Ottawa and other places in the province of Ontario.

Hitherto entire dependence has been placed in the political capital on the parliamentary library, to which, necessarily, only a minority of the citizens can have access, and that, too, solely when the two Houses are not sitting.

It is to be hoped that this appeal to the public spirit of Ottawa will have some success, and that her citizens will afford an example to other places in the Dominion still behind in this respect.

The Free Libraries Act, which is an illustration of the wisdom of the Ontario Government, has not taken that hold of the public mind that one would naturally expect from a section of the Dominion which has always prided itself on its liberal system of education for the masses. In Massachusetts every town of over one thousand souls has a free library, whilst in Ontario there are only some seven or eight cities and towns that have made any effort in the same praiseworthy direction.

Of course, when we advocate a free library, we are met by the objection that it means taxation of the people for the reading of novels, many of them most injurious to the mind, and leading to a great waste of time which ought to be devoted to studies of a more profitable character. We are quite sure that no one who looks at the mass of rubbish which is yearly circulated by English and American publishers but must feel that there is much force in the objection. It does not certainly say much.

for modern culture when one of the most popular novels is " Dodo," which shows very little literary skill and simply exposes the intense frivolity and utter heartlessness of an English woman of fashion, assuredly not among the characteristics of English mothers, whose sons have made England great, and whose daughters have elevated her virtue.

However, whilst no doubt the mass of light literature is wretched in the extreme, it is consoling to think that we have Marcella" and "The Manxman to prove that powerful conceptions of human life have not yet entirely disappeared since the days when there were giants indeed in the world of letters.

If Dickens and Thackeray had written nothing else than "David Copperfield" and "The Tale of Two Cities," "The Newcomes" and "Henry Esmond," they would still merit the thanks of Englishmen and their readers the world over. As long, then, as we have the works of Walter Scott, Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot, Ward, Stevenson, Oliphant and others of note, to delight and instruct the world, we need. not fear the establishment of free libraries. After all, a free library is an inducement to men and women to spend their time more profitably than is possible in places where one does not exist. Light literature wearies after a while, and the mind must, in most cases, turn to the more invigorating and healthy books that every well furnished library has on its shelves.

13. LIBRARY CATALOGUES.

We should like to see published ere long in convenient form, for the use of libraries and students generally, such a catalogue of the only national library Canada possesses-the parliamentary library at Ottawaas has been recently printed by the Royal Colonial Institute, which has done such good service for the empire since its foundation in 1868. This handsome catalogue of its library cannot fail to be of much use to Englishmen and the numerous persons in London who require information from time to time on colonial questions. It is compiled in such a manner as to show the full titles of the works upon each colony in the order of publication, together with an index of authors and contents, which makes it historical as well as illustrative in its character. The book is divided into sections, in which the literature of every colony is so arranged that the works upon any special subject connected with its history, government, trade and development may be followed from its foundation to the present time. For instance, if we wish for information upon a particular subject, we need only refer to the headings on Colonial Botany and Flora, Imperial Federation, Emigration, Transactions of Societies, West Indies, Voyages and Circumnavigation, and so on. In order further to increase the utility of the catalogue for purposes of reference, the contents of all the chief collections of voyages, such as Hakluyt, Purchas,

and articles from encyclopædias, periodicals and proceedings of learned societies, are placed under the colonies to which they refer. Canadian authors are fairly well represented in this well-stocked library. In the fifty large octavo pages the titles of their works take up, we see the names of Robert Bell, J. G. Bourinot, G. Bryce, Eneas Dawson, G. M. Dawson, Sir J. W. Dawson, G. T. Denison, S. Fleming, N. F. Davin, S. E. Dawson, E. Gilpin, G. M. Grant, T. C. Haliburton ("Sam Slick "), A. Harvey, Sir F. Hincks, J. Howe, J. Hannay, J. M. LeMoine, Lady Macdonald, J. Macoun, A. Morris, G. Parker, G. Patterson, D. B. Read, C. G. D. Roberts, H. Scadding, J. Schultz, G. Stewart, Sir D. Wilson, and a few others who have contributed pamphlets and works of less note. Canadian authors and others would do good service by sending copies of books to a library which is most useful to all colonial dependencies and the students of their history and resources. Mr. Bossé, the librarian, who has compiled this catalogue with so much industry and intelligence, is an earnest student of colonial questions, always ready to assist those who require to make researches in this library.

14. ROYAL SOCIETY BIBLIOGRAPHY.

The previous paragraph recalls the fact that the Royal Society of Canada is also doing useful work in the same direction. In the twelfth volume of the Transactions, there will appear a bibliography of the members of the society. This compilation will be exceptionably valuable since it will cover the scientific and literary works of men like Sir J. W. Dawson, Abbé Casgrain, Evan McColl, Abbé Gosselin, W. Kirby, Mgr. Tanguay, Abbé Verreau, H. Hale, Rev. Moses Harvey, Rev. G. Patterson, Dr. Kingsford, S. Fleming, Mgr. Hamel, Abbé Laflamme, Dr. Selwyn, Rev. Dr. Williamson, Dr. G. Lawson and some others who have been earnest workers in the world of science and literature for the past forty years. In addition to the bibliography of these old workers, there are some seventy and more names of the younger literary and scientific men of Canada. Practically the collection covers the most important and scientific and literary work that has been done in Canada for the most active period. so far, of its intellectual development. As the work includes all important articles that have been written by Canadian authors in periodicals, as well as pamphlets and books, it will be seen that it is a most important contribution to bibliographical literature, and invaluable as a work of reference.

15. THE ARCHIVES OF CANADA.

In this bibliography of the Royal Society there also appears an excellent summary of the work done in the dominion department of Archives up to the present time, under the direction of Dr. Brymner, in the form of an analysis of the contents of each of its reports since the