THE COUNCIL. 11 



and has not hesitated to place near the genus Didelphis. 

 Three specimens of the same bone were already known ; the 

 fourth which has now been presented to this Museum, was 

 contained in a collection made for Sir Christopher Sykes by 

 Mr. Piatt, of Oxfordshire, more than forty years ago. It was 

 found in that collection by Mr. Phillips, who, having dechned 

 the offer of it to himself, afterwards accepted the proposal of 

 the liberal donor to place it in the Yorkshire Museum. 



A zealous patroness of geological science, Miss Benett, 

 has honoured the Society with an extensive donation of fossils 

 belonging to the chalk and inferior beds, and including speci- 

 mens of the alcyonites of Wiltshire, accompanied by a copy of 

 the unpubhshed work in which they are figured. From Mr. 

 Mantell there has been received a selection of the fossils of the 

 Tilgate beds and of the chalk of Sussex, augmented by a 

 contribution from the same county by Archdeacon Croft, — ^from 

 the President of the Geological Society,^ specimens of the insects 

 preserved in the lacustrine deposits of Aix, in Provence, — from 

 Dr. Buckland, fossils and casts of bones illustrative of some of 

 his discoveries, — ^from Mr. Chantrey, a cast taken by him from 

 the magnificent specimen of Plesiosaurus, in the Duke of Buck- 

 ingham's collection, — ^from Mr. Henwood, a series of specimens 

 illustrative of the rocks and mineral veins of Cornwall, — from 

 Mr. Grimston, the fossil sheUs of the most ancient depository 

 of organic remains in Britain, the slate of Snowdon, — from 

 Mr. Lewis, those of the transition slate of Herefordshire ; 

 and from Mr. Loscombe, a miscellaneous collection which has 

 supplied many desiderata in the geological catalogue. 



A few additions have been made, illustrative of interesting 

 facts in the Geology of Yorkshire. To the Curator of the 

 Philosophical Society of Leeds, * the Museum is indebted for 



R. I. Murchison, Esq. - John Hey, Esq. 



