1898] NEWS 287 
Island, the result of a deputation to the Premier of Tasmania. They are now 
safe all the year round for five years. Mr C. French was again elected president. 
THE Council of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall in its 84th Report 
expresses its satisfaction over the new geological survey of the county at the hands 
of Mr J. B. Hill. Application to the Government was made as the result of the 
Annual Joint Meeting of the Scientific Societies of Cornwall, at Falmouth, in 
August 1896, and Mr Hill was told off by the Survey to examine the pedtions of 
ae south coast last autumn. The Council also reports the complete and detailed 
examination of the St Erth pliocene, and has under its consideration the preserva- 
tion of the plans and sections of abandoned mines. Mr Howard Fox has been 
awarded the Bolitho gold medal, and Mr J. H. Collins has been made an honorary 
member. 
From the Annual Report of the Yorkshire Geological and Polytechnic Society 
we learn that the roll of members is 164, This is the highest since 1893, and it 
is satisfactory to learn that all these members are in active association with their 
Society. The editors have dated their Proceedings with the proper year of issue, 
instead of one year earlier as heretofore. Next year we hope they will improve 
on this and add the month, for we note that the future bibliographer will not be 
able to say whether Mr Woodward’s paper on the Yorkshire fossil fishes was pub- 
lished in January or December 1898. The Proceedings contain a paper on Filey 
Bay and Brigg by Mr Fox-Strangeways, which is illustrated by eight beautiful 
photographs by Mr Godfrey Bingley. There are also portraits and obituaries of 
Thomas Tate and John Stanley Tute. 
THE Selborne Society in the September number of Nature Notes desire to wipe 
off a printer’s debt. The Society is now sufficiently flourishing to show but a 
small deficit in its balance sheet, but hopes to raise three hundred pounds during 
the next three years to clear itself of debt. 
In June last we called attention to an application for subscriptions to erect a 
suitable monument to the late Baron Ferdinand von Mueller. This was set 
on foot by the executors. We now note that a second committee has been formed 
by Mr W. Wiesbaden, Professor Baldwin Spencer, and others, who are desirous 
of founding some National Memorial which shall worthily perpetuate his name. 
Whilst nominally the Government Botanist of Victoria, it is well known that the 
Baron von Mueller’s assistance was sought by and always freely given not only 
to public bodies but to private individuals in all parts of Australia. Apart from 
his purely scientific work, upon the value of which it is unnecessary to dwell, 
Von Mueller devoted himself to the development of the more practical side of 
various branches of work, such as those connected with Forestry, Agriculture, 
Horticulture, Pharmacy and, not least, Geographical Exploration. His own 
explorations in early days, both in Northern Australia as botanist in the expedi- 
tion under Mr A. C. Gregory, and when, subsequently, he traversed alone the 
then little known wilds of Gippsland, were of considerable importance, and his 
deep interest in and the practical assistance which he rendered to the explorations 
of others are well known. Not only did he spend his whole life in the furtherance 
of the work in which, from the nature of his position, he was most deeply 
interested, but he devoted practically the whole of his income to the assistance 
of those who were engaged in work the object of which was to increase our 
knowledge of the nature and products of Australasian lands. It is on these 
grounds, “therefore, that the committee hope that sufficient funds will be forth- 
coming to provide for (1) the erection of some form of statue, and (2) the 
endowment of a Medal, Prize or Scholarship, to be associated with Von Mueller’s 
name and to be awarded from time to time in recognition of distinguished 
work in the special branches in which he was most deeply interested, and which 
