Ill 



Ordinary Meeting, April loth, 1873. 



R. Angus Smith, Ph.D., F.RS., Vice-President, in the Chair. 



Mr. William Thomson was elected an Ordinary Member 

 of the Society. 



Mr. Francis Nicholson, F.Z.S., exhibited two fine eggs 

 of the golden eagle (Falco chrysaetos) taken the previous 

 week from a nest in the north of Scotland. Fortunately 

 some of the large landed proprietors both in Scotland and 

 Ireland are now preserving this noble bird from persecution 

 during the breeding time, so that it is not likely to be tho- 

 roughly exterminated at present, but British taken eggs are 

 difficult to obtain and are rare in collections. 



The following letter from Mr. William Boyd Dawkins^ 

 F.R.S., was read : 



As Secretary of the Committee of the British Association 

 for carrying on the exploration of the Victoria Cave, I am 

 obliged to notice the " Notes on Victoria Cave," by Mr. W. 

 Brockbank, published in the Proceedings, March 10th, 1873, 

 pp. 95 et aeq. The notes in question are based partly on 

 Mr. Brockbank's examination of the cave during two visits 

 with an interval of two years between them, partly on the 

 facts recorded by Mr. Tiddeman and myself, and partly on a 

 gi^ound plan constructed by our superintendent Mr. Jackson, 

 for the Exploration Committee, that is not yet published. 

 I submit that until the work of the Committee to which 

 the cave has been handed over by the kindness of the owner 

 be finished, and the observations, to which Mr. Brockbank 

 has had no access, be recorded, his notes must of neces- 

 sity be imperfect and liable to error. How much he is in 

 error as to matters of fact may be estimated by the exami- 

 nation of the statement, p. 97 — " the day before my visit a, 

 mass of at least 100 tons had fallen from above the face of 

 the Victoria Cave." Mr. Jackson writes me that not even a 

 mass weighing one ton, although tAVO blocks possibly of 



PEOCEEmKGS— Lit. & Phil. Society.— Yol. XIL— No. 11— Session 1872-3. 



