178 NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 



I should add that our squatters, while they have been attending 

 to the quality of the wool, have not neglected the carcase. The 

 Merino sheep of most of our leading flocks is becoming a larger 

 and a better developed animal, with a strong constitution and 

 singularly free from disease. 



I hope I have in some degree succeeded in showing how well 

 our Australian colonies are adapted for the growth of the highest 

 classes of the Merino sheep and wool. The whole of the country 

 on our western watersheds is an essentially pastoral one. and 

 eminently suitable for the progressive development and improve- 

 ment of the Merino sheep, and we cnly require the fostering help 

 of an intelligent Government to keep in the front rank of the 

 wool-producing countries of the world. 



NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 



Mr. Norton exhibited a specimen of Tasmanite from the River 

 Tamar in Tasmania, and explained that it was a species of shale 

 formed in thin layers, and that numerous small flattened discs 

 of some substance like amber, resembling spores of a lycopod, 

 were scattered throughout the whole substance of the stone, in 

 consequence of which it would burn with a bright flame without 

 its substance being apparently reduced thereby. It was of no 

 value as a fuel. 



The President exhibited several fine specimens of the " Paper 

 Nautilus" which had been brought from Lord Howe Island by 

 Mr. H. T. Wilkinson, J. P. It is said that they are of rare 

 occurrence there. 



Mr. Whitelegge exhibited a number of transparent sections of 

 fossil wood from the Oldham Coalfield, Lancashire, also some 

 longitudinal sections of fossil wood from the Darling Downs, and 

 transverse and longitudinal sections of Lepidodendron, Stigmaria, 

 and Catamites. 



