4 REPORT OF 



adapting some of the furniture to new uses, and in preparing 

 Zoological specimens, and some useful purchases have been 

 made for the Museum. 



As, however, the best index of the condition of the Insti- 

 tution is the favour of the public, the Members will learn 

 with pleasure that by far the greatest additions made to the 

 Library and Museums have been received as heretofore 

 from voluntary contributions. Not to dwell on the numerous 

 specimens furnished by Miss Gurney, Mr. Egerton, Mr. 

 Hatfeild, Mr. Prestwich, Mr. Wm. Gray, Professor Phillips, 

 and Mr. Harcourt, to the already large collections in the 

 Geological Museum, the Council wishes to call especial at- 

 tention to the noble monument of the ancient condition of the 

 British Islands, the great extmct Elk of Ireland, presented 

 by G. L. Fox, Esq. from his estate near Waterford. In this 

 magnificent relique of other days the mind recognizes one 

 of those characteristic forms of vanished beings, the study of 

 which has given to the name of Cuvier an imperishable renown, 

 and to the world at large subjects of inquiry and contempla- 

 tion concerning the natural history of the earth, which must 

 outlast this and many generations; and it may surely be 

 pardoned to the Members of the Yorkshire Philosophical 

 Society, if they feel an honest pride in being the first to 

 place in an English Museum a skeleton of this gigantic 

 animal. 



Considerable additions have been made to the Zoological 

 collections, especially to the departments of Ornithology and 

 Entomology. One hundred and thirty-seven birds from Au- 

 stralia, collected by Capt. E. Markham ; thirty birds from 

 the Himalaya, the gift of Dr. Wake ; besides some valuable 

 species given by other friends of the Institution have enabled 

 the officers to put the collection of foreign birds in a condition 

 more equal to that of other departments of the Museum. 



