the sum of £14,690 2^. Sd. Of this sum, £500 was invested in 

 Exchequer Bills during the last season, but taking into account 

 the difference in the amount of the cash balance at the end of 

 the last and previous years, the actual saving on the year has 

 been only £376 18*. Id. For more detailed information on this 

 subject, as well as with regard to the Finances of the Society in 

 general, the Council beg to refer to the Report of the Auditors. 



II. SCIENTIFIC ESTABLISHMENT. 

 1. Museum. 

 In the last Anniversary Report it was announced that the 

 Council had made a provisional selection of a design for the 

 erection of a Museum at the Gardens, and that negotiations 

 for that purpose had been opened with the Commissioners of 

 Woods and Forests on the basis of the Resolution of the 

 Special General Meeting of the Society held on the 8th of 

 July 1841. Unforeseen difficulties arose during the progress 

 of this negotiation, especially with respect to the site of the 

 proposed building, which caused such protracted delays as 

 induced the Council to reconsider the whole subject ; and it 

 has been finally determined to convert the present Carnivora 

 House, enlarged by a new building of equal dimensions on 

 the south, into a Museum for the reception of the preserved 

 Collections. The space thus afforded will, it is conceived, 

 be sufficient for the immediate Avants of the Society ; whilst 

 the plan has the further advantage of being attended with a 

 very material saving in the estimated outlay. The new build- 

 ing at present in process of erection is to be completed by 

 contract for the sum of £803, and the necessary alterations 

 in the present Carnivora House and the removal of the Col- 

 lections will probably cost about as much more ; so that the 

 Council confidently expect to complete the two important 

 Avorks at present in progress at the Gardens — the Museum 

 and Carnivora Terrace — for a less sum than that originally 

 voted by the Society for the Museum alone. Both these 

 works, the latter of which will be more particularly referred 

 to in a succeeding part of this Report, will be completed by 

 the middle of June, and the animals and preserved collections 

 removed into them as soon as possible afterwards. 



