0/0 PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 



and I feel it a happy privilege to be warranted to state before 

 this meeting tliat he is now, by the last advices, rapidly recovering 

 his natural health and energy. 



In Geology there is in like manner little to report outside of 

 the Societies. But I may mention that the exploration of the 

 Wellington Caves, including several newly- discovered ramifica- 

 tions, has been continued during the past year by the Australian 

 Museum, with funds provided by Parliament, and that among the 

 fossils collected are^ as determined by Professor Owen, bones of a 

 new species of Thylacoleo, of Phascolomi/s curvirostris, n. sp. and 

 Falorchestes Rephaim, n. sp. 



A new step has also been taken by the Department of Mines, 

 which will be hailed with enthusiasm by all who have or desire 

 to have any knowledge of Australian Geology and Palaeontology. 

 The labours of von Ettingshausen on the Tertiary Flora, those of 

 De Koninck on the Palasozoic Fauna, and, generally, the most 

 valuable and standard books on Australian Palaeontology, are at 

 the present time, as I am given to understand, in preparation for 

 the Australian reader, who hitherto has had small opportunity of 

 access to these treasures. The Government has arranged for the 

 translation of the Text, which will be printed and published here, 

 and for the reproduction of the Plates, which is to be effected in 

 England, or at any rate in Europe, under the supervision of the 

 original authorities. Some of these plates indeed — as for example 

 those which illustrate von Ettingshausen's Tertiary Flora — are 

 already printed, and, I believe, in the colony. 



May T be allowed in conclusion to offer a few remarks, of 

 (juite private interpretation, upon a subject which must interest 

 not only all Scientific enquirers, l)ut also all who are capable 

 of rational freedom, and are yet not at all disposed to 

 dance in the Freethought Carmagnole. A few weeks ago I 

 read, with astonishment and dismay, an article by Mr. 

 Gladstone upon the "Geology of Genesis." It was published 

 in the Ninctcentlh Century of November, under the title " Dawn 

 of Creation and of Worship," and was professedly a polemical 

 discussion of M. Reveille's "Prolegomenes de I'histoire des 



