COUNCIL FOR 1858. .9 



furnished.* It was at his suggestion, that the Council 

 determined to protect them by a screen of glass, from the 

 injury to -which their projecting portions might be exposed. 

 The structure of the Plesiosaurus Zetlandicus appeared to 

 him so curious, as to induce him to recommend that it should 

 not be encased in the wall, so as to conceal its inferior 

 surface, but deposited in a horizontal case, having been first 

 carefully cleared of extraneous matter and arranged, by Mr. 

 Dew of the British Museum, to whom he kindly undertook 

 to give the necessary instructions. The Council have engaged 

 Mr. Dew to visit York, but as the time during which he can 

 be absent from his duties in London is limited, it has been 

 thought desirable that he should come when the increased 

 length of the days would enable him to work longer in the 

 Museum. The table for its reception is in preparation, and 

 along with the Plesiosaurus will be deposited fossils belong- 

 ing to the formation from which it was extracted. The 

 space now vacant on the wall in which the two large saurians 

 are encased, will be filled, it is hoped, hereafter by some 

 similar remains, which time will no doubt bring to light in the 

 rich strata of Whitby. The opposite side of the room will for the 

 present be devoted to casts of saurians, which may hereafter 

 be replaced by real specimens, if we should be so fortunate as 

 to obtain them. 



The members of the Society will be desirous to know, 

 what are the plans of the Council for the occupation of the 

 two remaining rooms of the new building. "With the appro- 

 bation of Mr. Rudston Read, the valuable collection of British 

 birds presented by him, will be removed from the upper room 

 of the original building, in which it is now kept, and placed 

 under the gallery, in the room which is entered from the 

 zoological collection. Its position can easily be changed and 



* In a letter to the Rev. W. V. Harcourt, Professor Owen says : 

 " I retain Professor Phillips's name Zetlandicus, attached to the short-necked 

 Plesiosaurus from Whitby in the York Museum. The long necked Plesiosaurus " 

 (Col. Cholmley's) "is V\. homalospondylus ; the Ichthyosaurus" (Mr. Roundell's) 

 " is Ichth. crassimanus. Thp one represents the PI. doUchodeirtis of the Dorset 

 Lias, the other, the Ichth. platyodon of the same Lias ; but both are distinct species, 

 peculiar to Whitby." 



