to sedimentary rocks, it was necessary to use great caution in expressing 

 an opinion upon tlie age of any rocks in which no fossils have been 

 discovered, but the characteristic flexures of stratification, and direction 

 of strike would often help to distinguish between rocks of upper and 

 lower Palaeozoic age. In the older rocks it was often very difficult to 

 detect any fossils, although some, especially the limestones, wei^e fully 

 charged with the remains of teeming organic life. In such cases the 

 indications of shells, corals, and other bodies embedded in the rocks, had 

 been obliterated by a partial metamorphism. One might examine for 

 hours the freshly broken surface of such rocks without finding a trace of 

 any fossils, and there would be little chance of success except in those 

 portions which exhibited a weathered surface. Here the traces of the 

 embedded organisms might often be detected standing out in low relief, 

 the result of atmospheric disintegration. As an instance of this Mr. 

 Stephens exhibited a weathered fragment of limestone recently ob- 

 tained from the Black River, Circular Head. 



In reference to presentation No. 18, Mr. Stephens observed that it 

 was interesting, as it showed in a very marked manner the appendages 

 (? rudimentary extremities) near the vent, which some writers have sup- 

 posed to be confined to the Pythonidae and other hai'mless snakes. Fatal 

 mistakes might be committed were this supposition acted on as correct, 

 as probably no more deadly snake than our black one ( Hoplocepkahia 

 curtiis) is found in these colonies. 



Mr. Allport remarked that these appendages were very common 

 in our black snakes. 



A fine specimen of flax grown at the Huon, and an enormous sun- 

 flower, in reference to which a paragraph appeared in The Mercury a 

 few days ago, were brought under the notice of the meeting. 



Mr. M. Allpokt read a letter from the Secretary of the Royal Museum 

 of Natural History of Belgium, returning thanks for our "Papers and 

 Proceedings," and specimens of Natural History, forwarded by the 

 Society and by Mr. Allport himself. The Secretary referred to other 

 Societies in Belgium which would be happy to make interchanges with 

 us. 



Mr. F. Abbott, senr., read some notes on the Results of five years' 

 Meteorological Observations, made at his private observatory, Hobart 

 Town. With these were mcluded the twenty-five years' Results already 

 published, the whole being a series of observations extending over a 

 period of thirty consecutive years, and terminating at the end of 1870. 

 Dr. Hall, read a very elaborate and carefully drawn up paper on the 

 Climate and Vital Statistics of Tasmania for fifteen years, 1857 — 71. 

 Introducing the subject the author observed that the Royal Society 

 of Tasmania might well be proud of its Meteorological publications, 

 as he could state that they were greatly commended by the highest 

 authorities on the subject at home. The abstracts now before the 

 meeting embraced an uninterrupted series of observations far beyond 

 tliat possessed by any other British Colony. They show incontestably 

 that although the climate of Tasmania has always been recognised as 

 being salubrious it is so in reality to a higher degree than we have 

 hitherto supposed. Its advantages to invalids and others have indeed 

 been underrated, and it would be conducive to the bests interests of the 

 colony if this fact were made more generally known. Accurate statistics 

 of all kinds were valuable, but none were of such personal interest to 

 each of us as Vital Statistics, bearing as they do on the probabilities 

 of human life at all ages ; with the infiuences, favorable or unfavorable, 

 exerted upon it by surrounding circumstances. The intelligent recog- 

 nition of these influences, with their mode of action, was of the first 

 importance to the Sanitarian, whose object was the promotion of the 



