Mr. Shaw, in reply to Dr. Crouch, said a grant to the 

 medical section for [905 did not appear in the accounts, as it 

 was not paid. 



Dr. Noetling raised the question <»f insurance. He noticed 

 there was an item in the 1004 accounts for insurance, but not 

 uently. The valuable books in the library could not be 

 replaced for £ 5.000. 



Mr. Shaw said the books were now reinsured as the pro- 

 perty of the Society for £1.000. 



The motion for the ad-option of the accounts was then put 

 and carried. 



Mr. J. \Y. Gould moved, Dr. Crouch seconding the motion, 

 " That a hearty vote of thanks be given to Mr. Bernard Shaw 

 for the large amount of trouble he had taken in examining the 

 accounts of the Society for the past four years." The motion 

 was put and carried with applause. 



APRIL 13, 1908. 



The Monthly General Meeting of the Society was held at 

 the Museum on Monday evening, April 13, 1908. 



Mr. Russell Young in the chair. 



The Chairman referred in feeling terms to the cause of the 

 absence of Sir John Dodds (Lieutenant-Governor and Acting- 

 President of the Society), and felt sure that the meeting was 

 in deep sympathy with him and his family. 



The Secretary to the Council (Mr. Robert Hall) notified 

 the receipt of valuable literature from kindred societies in all 

 parts of the world, from Russia. Argentina, Canada, the Medi- 

 terranean countries, and Great Britain. The Smithsonian 

 Institute, U.S.A., had sent books of very great value. 



Mr. Hall then gave an account of the travels of himself 

 and friend through Siberia to Moscow and St. Petersburg, and 

 then on to London. He described the fauna and flora met with 

 in a journey of 6,000 miles on the little-known Lena River, in 

 Siberia. The people, their modes of living, etc., were well 

 illustrated and described. He said we have on our beaches all 

 round f he coast millions of little wading birds, very little larger 

 than sparrows, called sand-pipers, which stay with us over 

 Christmas till about April, and then fly 8,000 miles northwards 

 to Siberia, where they breed their young, arriving just after 

 the ice melts on the largest swamp in the world, called the 

 Tundra, extending over 2,000 miles east and west. In the 

 following October they started again, with their young birds, 

 back to Tasmania. Then there was a fish popularly known as 

 the herring in Bass Strait, which migrated past the Philippines 

 and Corea right up to Kamschatka, making a return trip the 

 same year, and this went on year after year. Most of the 



