it would not be difficult to enlarge on the aid in num- 

 bers of instances, which our geological stores in parti- 

 cular, have afforded both to individuals and societies 

 devoted to kindred pursuits in other places ; for in 

 looking back among previous Reports we find men- 

 tioned the visits of such men as Agassiz and Buckland 

 for the purpose of obtaining a loan in the department 

 of our fossil fishes, and applying them by engraving 

 and description to illustrate their work on such objects, 

 which is known to have a national reputation. It 

 would be easy in this way to multiply cases, but we 

 may not omit to notice the late loan by request of our 

 fossil " Zamia Gigas," to the British Museum, as a 

 rare example pertaining to fossil botany, a subject upon 

 which certain heads of that Institution were engaged. 

 Of these treasures, as the yield of this vicinity, how 

 desirable to have an extended Synopsis when the pre- 

 sent list may have to be reprinted. Specimens of rare 

 manifestation are apparent enough to the professional 

 visitor, but are not so to the numbers, and without a 

 compendium of leading contents, many a valuable item 

 is as liable to be overlooked, as though it had never 

 been deposited. 



A noteworthy addition has lately been made to our 

 natural history selection, by the purchase of an Opal, 

 or King-fish, a species which Yarrel observes, is as 

 beautiful as it is rare, being a native of the Western 

 shores of Africa. Taken on the rocks about six miles 

 north of Whitby, its body is an oval above three feet 

 long, the back and sides of a green color, passing 

 downwards into a hue of purple and yellow, with a 

 sprinkling of yellowish white spots ; the fins being 

 vermilion, and the eye-circles scarlet. Of the few that 



