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Vol. XXXV.— No. 12. APRIL 10, 1919. No. 424. 



FIELD NATURALISTS' CLUB OF VICTORIA. 



The ordinary monthly meeting of the Club was held at the 

 Royal Society's Hall on Monday evening, ioth March, 1919. 



The president, Mr. A. D. Hardy, F.L.S., occupied the chair, 

 and about fifty members and visitors were present. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



From Mr. F. P. Dodd, Kuranda, Queensland, stating that 

 the report that his collection of butterflies, &c, recently ex- 

 hibited in Melbourne had been purchased for transmission to 

 America is entirely without foundation. 



REPORTS. 



A report of the excursion to Balwyn and Bulleen on Satur- 

 day, 18th January, was forwarded by the leaders, Messrs. 

 F. Chapman, A.L.S., and A. L. Scott, who stated that, owing 

 to a very unpleasant hot wind day, only a few members met 

 for the ramble over picturesque country to the volcanic plug 

 at Balwyn and thence to the Koonung Creek, near Bulleen. 

 An account of a former visit to the plug, with illustrations, 

 was given in the Naturalist for June, 1913 (vol. xxx., p. 35), 

 and would hold good for the present occasion. The wind had 

 now changed to the south-west, bringing up clouds of smoke 

 from distant bush-fires as well as a welcome change in 

 temperature. From the plug the party proceeded across the 

 paddocks to the Koonung Creek, where it is crossed by the 

 road to Templestowe. There, in some Ordovician mudstone 

 used for road-making, some rather minute fossils were obtained, 

 consisting of several well-preserved specimens of Chonetes 

 Melbournensis, also a fragment of a rhynchonellid, both 

 belonging to the lamp-shell group. A return was then made 

 to Deepdene or East Kew, as suited the members of the party. 



A report of the excursion to Portarlington on Monday, 27th 

 January (Foundation Day), was given by the leader, Mr. J. 

 Gabriel, who said that seven members met on board the Courier. 

 Nothing of note was remarked on the way down the river or in 

 Port Phillip Bay. On arrival at Portarlington it was found 

 that fortunately we had struck a low tide, and consequently 

 expected some good spoil, but a walk of some three or four 

 miles towards Indented Head (St. Leonards) revealed very 

 little of interest to the naturalist. Some time was spent in 

 endeavouring to obtain some Nemertine worms from a partly 

 submerged sandy patch, but with poor results, the creatures 



