REPORT OF COMMITTEE No. 3. 
Australasian Biological Station Committee. 
Memspers oF CommiTTEE:—Mr. A. Denpy, Mr. J. J. Furrcusr, Mr. 
A. H. 8. Lucas, Mr. MacGituivray, Professor W. BALDWIN SPENCER 
and Dr. W. A. HaswEuu (Secretary). 
‘Ow1nG to the impossibility of holding meetings at other times than 
during the meeting of the Association, the members of the committee 
being scattered over all the Australian colonies, it has been 
impossible for the committee as a body to do much in the course 
of the year. Measures, however, have been taken, which it is 
hoped will lead to their being in a position to report an important 
step before the next meeting of the Association. 
It was the general opinion of the members of the committee 
who were present at the Sydney meeting of the Association that 
Port Jackson is in many respects the most favourable situation 
for the establishment of the proposed station. The proximity to 
a capital in which there are good scientific libraries, the sheltered 
character of the shores, and the richness of the marine fauna all 
combine to render it the most convenient situation that could be 
selected. In addition, the neighbourhood of Sydney, or at least 
some part of the New South Wales coast, is to be preferred as 
the site of the proposed station, owing to the fact that there 
already exists there a nucleus for such an institution. 
From 1881 to 1886 there was at Watson’s Bay, near the Heads 
of Port Jackson, a small building entitled the Biological Station, 
which was constructed on a piece of land granted by the 
Government. The expense of the construction of the building 
having been defrayed by private subscriptions and subscriptions 
from various learned societies, including the Royal Societies of 
New South Wales and Victoria, supplemented by a Government 
subsidy. The situation was not very convenient, and the station 
was little used, except by M. N.de Miklouho Maclay, by whose 
efforts it was founded. In 1886, at the time of a scare regarding 
war with Russia, the land was resumed by the Government of the 
colony for military purposes; a sum of money being granted to 
the trustees of the station as compensation for the loss of the 
building. This sum of money is now available as a nucleus of 
