At fchfl conclasioa of the demonsti-ation the 

 Prdsident m^ved a very hearty vote of thanks to 

 Mr. Nightingale, and said he would emphasise the 

 importance of sticking to one developer, because 

 now photography had been the means of the 

 discovery of so many new chemicals, it was 

 impossible to try every new thing. He also hoped 



it would be possible to have many such free and 

 easy demonstrations as that evening, because he 

 believed more could be learned and more good done 

 than by mere formal lectures, 



Tiie vote of thanks was carried with acclamation, 

 and the lecturer suitably replied. 



THIRD WINTER MEETING— NOVEMBER 5th, 1901 



"THE GREAT BARRIER REEF OF AUSTRALIA." 

 By Mr. Morgam. 



The third winter meeting was held in the 

 Reference Library of the Beaney Institute on 

 Tuesday, November 5. 1 he members present 

 included the President (Mr. Sidney Harvey) in 

 the chair, the Deputy Mayor (Dr. Netherclift), 

 Councillor Whichcord, Mr.W. P. Mann. B.A., Mi^s 

 Holmes, Miss Phillpotts. Miss Cole, Miss Cozens, 

 Miss Abbott, Mrs. Stevens, Mrs. Somerville, 

 Messrs, W. Cozens, W. Sarry.W. H. H*mm md, C. 

 Buckingham, M. Husbands, W. Gard, J. T. Smith, 

 the Hon. Soc. (Mr. A. Lander), Mrs. Landjr, Miss 

 B. Smith, and others. Oa the tables were a large 

 number of interesting exhibits, including a number 

 of beautiful sun-prints of plants and ferns by Miss 

 Holmes and Miss Phillpotts; fruitof Pyrm japonica 

 by Miss Cole ; two albums of very inter.^sting phot- 

 micrographs by Mr. W. H. Hammond, showing in 

 detail the eggs of the moth Botys hyalinalis and 

 the development of the embryo from the time that 

 the eggs were laid until the larvae were fully de- 

 veloped ready for hatching, a period of about a 

 fortnight 



Mr. B. Rigden kindly preseateed to the Society 

 many annual volumes of *' British Rainfall," and 

 Mr. Baker, a previous H m. Sac. and City Surveyor, 

 presented photographs of the Elham Valley rail- 

 way cutting. Both were thanked for the gifts to 

 the Society. 



Mr. VV. H. Hammond was unanimously elected 

 a member of the Society and the President then 

 briefly introduced 



Mr. Morgan, of St. Leonard s-on-Sea, who gave 

 a lecture on " The Great Barrier Reef of Aus- 

 tralia," illustrated with coral specimens and a 

 series of excellent lantern slides. Mr. Morgan 

 referred to his former visit to Canterbury and to 

 the loss the Society and the Museum bad since 

 sustained by the death of the Honorary Curator, 

 Mr. Stephen Horsley, to whom he paid a tribute 

 of affection and respect. Placing on the screen a 

 map of a portion of Queensland, with the part of 

 the Pacific that washes its shores, he pointed out 

 the course of this great Reef from Sandy Cape to 

 Torres Sfraits — 1, 2 jO geographical miles. Within 

 the shallow seas, enclosed by this reef, which is a 

 true barrier to the mighty Pacific, there are lesser 

 reefs ciUed fringery reefs. The reef-forming 

 corals are the product of polyps that fl>uri3h only 

 in water 6S^ or more in heat, found therefore 

 almost exclusively within the tropics. They 

 exist, too, at only a limited depth— from 25 to 30 



fathoms below the surface. Yet this imoiease 

 reef has its sides towards the Pacific going down 

 to depths varying from 500 to 2,000 fathoms. The 

 question a'ose, how was it formed ? There were 

 two rival theories ; stated briefly they might be 

 thus given. Mr. Darwin, Mr. Dana, and others 

 believed that the shores all along the coast of 

 Queensland have been slowly sinking during 

 recent geological times ; and that the coral polyps 

 built up the reef or rather the reef was formed of 

 the debris and remains of such corals at a corres- 

 ponding rate until the vast stru2ture has been 

 attained. Dr. Murray and others, on the other 

 hand, contend that the bed of the ocean has been 

 continually covered by the materials brought 

 down by rivers and washed from the rocks of the 

 shore, augmented by the remains of marine 

 animals of various kinds, until some portions 

 reached within 25 fathoms of the surface. This 

 formed resting places for the coral polyps and 

 formed a home for their structure. The circular 

 form of many Atolls might thus be accounted for, 

 being formed on the summits or slopes of sub- 

 marine volcanoes. These theories were severally 

 illaatrated by diagrams from various geological 

 works. The lecturer also detailed somewhat fully 

 the operations carried on in 1896-7 on the reef at 

 Funafuti by Dr. Sollas and Mr. Stanley Gaidiner, 

 of England, and Mr. Hedley, of Sydney, by whom 

 the reef was bored and the core obtained sent to 

 England for examination. Though too early to 

 pronounce, it was thought by good authorities 

 that the evidence was in favour of Mr. Darwin's 

 theory, since the materials brought up from the 

 690 feet of thickness were of much the same 

 character throughout. Layers of chalky ooze, 

 such as Dr. Murray's theory required, were absent. 

 The question could not, however, be regarded as 

 at present determined. 



The lecturer next gave a series of most beautiful 

 and instructive views of the reef at different 

 points, and of the inner reefs where the corals are 

 left by the retreating tide uncovered to observa- 

 tion. These were all taken from photographs 

 made by Mr. Saville Kent during his 3^ years' 

 stay on the Queensland coast. Tne lecture was 

 concluded by an earnest appeal t-o the naturalist 

 and the man of science to cultivate and rejoice in 

 the marvellous beauty which this little- studied 

 subject in common with the better known fields 

 of Nature affords to the mind. 



