226 NOTES ON THE PUBLICATIONS. 



Reports for the years 1856 to 1859, but it had not issued 

 a journal during these years. It is therefore not correct 

 to call the first journal issued by the Royal Society of 

 Tasmania " Part 2 of Vol. III." The first part of this Vol. 

 III. bears the title '' Papers and Proceedings of the Royal 

 vSociety of Van Diemen's Land," and we therefore see 

 that Vol. III. consists of two parts— Part i (1855), P^^^ ^ 

 (1859) — bearing two different titles. The intention was 

 apparently to conclude Vol. III. of the Papers and Pro- 

 ceedings of the Royal Society of Van Diemen's Land, 

 but as in the meantime this word had been replaced by 

 " Tasmania," there was no other way out of it except to 

 call Part 2 of Vol. III. Papers and Proceedings of the 

 Royal Society of " Tasmania." From a bibliographical 

 point of view this is very misleading, and nobody who is 

 not well acquainted with all the circumstances surround- 

 ing the publication of this Vol. III. would understand its 

 quaint composition. 



The publication of this volume for 1859 seems to have 

 exhausted the energies of the Royal Society, because no 

 journal, but only Annual Reports, were issued for three 

 years, viz., i860, 1861, 1862. 



In 1863 the first volume of a new periodical publica- 

 tion, called '' Monthly Notices of the Papers and Proceed- 

 ings of the Royal .Society of Tasmania," appeared, and 

 continued to be published under this title till 1875. The 

 volume for 1863 is somewhat of a curiosity, because its 

 first and second " monthly notice " contain papers that 

 were read in i860 and 1862 respectively. In 1863 a 

 number, paged separately, was issued every month, but 

 the first three numbers do not bear the name of the 

 month, which is to be found on the April to December 

 numbers only. If the covers of these numbers are re- 

 moved, the volume contains twelve pages i, twelve pages 

 2, and so on. 



In order to avoid this obvious inconvenience, the 

 volume for 1864 was consecutively paged. Separately 

 from the " Monthly Notices " the Annual Report was 

 issued as a special pamphlet till 1868. 



In 1868 the Annual Report was issued, together with 

 the Papers and Proceedings, the volume showing con- 

 secutive paging throughout. This lasted till 1875 inclu- 

 sive, but in the meantime the Monthly Notices were 



