xii 



OCTOBER, 1897. 



The monthly meeting of the Royal Society of Tasmania was held on 

 Monday evening, October 11, when Mr. Thos. Stephens presided. 



METEOROLOGICAL STATION ON MOUNT 

 WELLINGTON. 

 The Acting-Secretary (Mr. R. M. Johnston) reported that in regard 

 to the application to the Government for aid for a high level meteoro- 

 logical station for three months on Mount Wellington an answer was 

 expected at an early date. 



NEW MEMBERS. 



Mr. J. W. Israel and Mr. W. E. Harper, of Sydney, were balloted 

 for, and were unanimously elected members of the Society. 



MEASUREMENTS OF ABORIGINAL CRANIA. 



A learned and highly technical paper was partly read by Dr. Clarke, 

 prepared by himself and Mr. Walter E. Harper, member of the Poly- 

 nesian Society, on the measurements of the crania or skulls of Tasmanian 

 aboriginals now in the Hobart Museum, and comparing them with the 

 measurements of skulls of Europeans. The writers did not attempt 

 to draw conclusions as to the origin of the Tasmanian aboriginals nor 

 to define their characteristics. It was simply an account of the 

 measurements of the skulls of an extinct race, and which was a work 

 of importance to anthropologists. The reading of the paper was ac- 

 companied by illustrations in the shape of lantern slides of photographs 

 kindly lent "by Mr. Russell Young and Mr. Arthur Butler, the latter 

 gentleman manipulating the lantern. The distinctive features of the 

 skulls of Tasmanian aboriginals specially mentioned the projection of 

 the lower part of the forehead, the deep notch at the root of the nose, 

 and the keel shape of the vault of che skull. 



TOPAZ QUARTZ AT MOUNT BISCHOFF 



The Acting-Secretary read a paper on "The Topaz Quartz-Porphyry 

 or Stanniferous Elvan Dykes of Mouiit Bischoff," prepared by Mr.W. H. 

 Twelvetrees and Mr. W. F. Petterd. This rock formation was first 

 described by Mr. S. M. Wintle in 1875 as eurite porphyry, which it 

 had been termed by Professor Ulrich, who, however, did not publish 

 his description till 1877. In 1875 the late Chas. Gould wrote as 

 follows : — Mount Bischoff is a conical eminence rising to about 2,500ft, 

 above the level of the sea It consists of a small pro- 

 trusion of porphyritic rock bearing a felsitic base with granules and 

 crystals of quartz and felspar. It weathers white, and is honeycombed 

 or vesicular on the surface, most probably from the decomposition and 

 removal of pyrites, which is freely disseminated throughout the place. 

 Professor G. von Rath, of Bonn, first determined the existence of 

 topaz in the specimens sent to him by Professor Ulrich, and the descrip- 

 tion was published in 1879. The rock was further submitted to 

 investigation in 1884, when A. von Groddeck microscopically examined 

 specimens from Claushalf, received from Tasmania. Von Groddeck's 

 two papers on the subject disclose a thorough treatment of the 

 material available. He definitely negatived the idea of his sample 

 being quartz porphyry at all, and called it a porphyritic topaz rock. 

 Since then Mr. H. W. Ferd. Kayser, in his paper on Mount Bischoff, 



