week the captain of the German ship of war Ariadne sent me a very 

 flattering letter of thanks for what we had done. 



" Yours sincerely, 

 " Geo. Brown." 



In reference to presentation No. 6, the following note from Mr. Wintle 

 was read : — '" When in Hobart Town recently, I left with Mr. Eoblin a few 

 fossils, etc., and promised him that I would write a letter respecting them. 



" The specimens in question I found on the west bank of the river Tamar, 

 at Rostreavor, at low water mark. They had been washed out of a tertiary 

 clay deposit by river action, and were associated with numerous fossil fresh 

 water mussels f Vnio). The small slab of indurated clay, it will be seen, 

 is of much palajontological interest on account of its presenting on one 

 side an impression of the tongue-fern [Glossopterls), a cryptogamic fossil, 

 which is typical of the Australian carboniferous period, while on the 

 reverse side appears an external cast of a bivalve shell, which I am imable 

 to identify, but which I cannot regard as an Unio. In all probability it is 

 that of a marine shell. Accompanying it is an internal cast of what appears 

 to be the same species of testacea. 



" The apparently fossil pods, or seed vessels, are entitled to some attention 

 as being associated with the former. I may mention that I submitted them 

 to my friend and colleague, Mr. R. M. Johnston, while I was in Launceston, 

 who like myself could not determine the supposed seed vessels, nor the 

 shells, and confessed they were new to him. I would observe that the 

 interest attached to these fossils is due to the fact that they afford unques- 

 tionable evidence of a very great change having taken i^lace in the geology 

 of the northern part of the island — at least since the Mezozoic Tertiary 

 period. About that time a very extensive freshwater lake existed, not only 

 in the northern part of Tasmania, but also stretching far south, and even, 

 of which there is very strong evidence, extending to Victoria. As a con- 

 sequence, the river Tamar could not have had existence at that time, nor 

 indeed the river Derwent, nor Bass' Straits, assuming the hypothesis to be 

 correct, which I feel assured there are few geologists who have studied the 

 Tasmanian Tertiaries will doubt. This great change to existing geological 

 conditions was, doubtless, effected by the extensive eriiption of basalt 

 during the Pliocene epoch of which such abundant evidence abounds. 



" I seize this opportunity of expressing my deep sympathy with the Society 

 in the loss it has sustained by the death of its most able, esteemed, and 

 energetic member, the late Morton Allport, Esq. It is now that his use- 

 fulness is missed in a case like the present, to assist in determining fossil 

 remains." 



The following donations to the Library may be specially noted : — 



1. From Dr. Milligan, F.L.S. — Jardine's Memoirs of Hugh Strickland, 



1 vol. ; Bewick's British Birds (1821), 2 vols. ; Bewick's British 

 Quadrupeds (1811), 1 vol. ; Dr. J. Barnard Davis' "Thesaturus 

 Craniorum " and Supplement, 2 vols. ; Reprint of the Annual Sum- 

 maries of The Times newspaper, for a quarter of a century ; sundry 

 books and pamphlets on Prisons and Prison Discipline, etc. 



2. From the Board of Inquiry, on the Diseases of Live Stock and Plants 



Queensland, " A Monograph of the Grasses of Queensland," by F. 

 M. Bailey, F.L.S. 

 From America, per the Smithsonian Institution, "Washington : — 



1. From War Department, U.S., "Medical and Surgical History of the 



War of the Rebelhon," part 2 ; Report of Reconnaisance, Montana 

 Territory, 1 vol. 



2. From the Department of Agriculture, 9 pamphlets. 



3. From the Hydrographic Office, LLS., " The Coasts of Chili, Bolivia, 



and Peru." Catalogue of Charts. Tide tables, Pacific and Atlantic 

 Coasts. 



