PEESIDEXT S ADDRESS. 21 O 



harvest. Thanks to Admiral Wharton, R.N., F.H.S., the soundings 

 of this expedition have been placed in the hands of our able member 

 Mr. W. H. Burrows, who is now working them out. 



Dr. "Willey has continued his observations upon Nautilus ; and 

 during a sojourn in Sydney he worked out and published details of 

 considerable interest, not only upon Mollusca, but upon the 

 enigmatical Ctenoplana, of which he has described^ a new species 

 (C rosacea). He has left Sydney for New Caledonia, and carries 

 with him our best wishes. 



The impetus given to the study of the Polyplacophora by Pilsbry's 

 revisionary monograph and the adoption of its newer methods have 

 been most marked in their effects on the study of the Australian 

 and Novozelandiau forms. The papers by Pilsbry,* and those by 

 Bednall, Suter, and Sykes read at our meetings, well-nigh cover 

 the field ; and when we reflect upon the discovery during the 

 last few years of unique and engrossingly interesting Sponges 

 and Crustaceans, to say nothing of Flat-worms and Echinoderms, 

 by Dendy, Chilton,^ Farquhar,'' Thomson,* and others, we cannot 

 but congratulate our Kew Zealand brethren on the result. 



Finally, there arc now before us the complete report and narrative 

 of the expedition into the interior of Australia during 1894, which 

 bears the name of W. A. Horn, who so liberally organized and 

 endowed it, with the aid of the South Australian Government. 

 Kesults of the greatest interest have been obtained in Zoology, 

 Botany, Anthropology, and Geology ; and, on consideration of the 

 exceptional difficulties under which the little band of investigators 

 were placed in working them out, they have merited our profound 

 thanks. To Professor Baldwin Spencer, upon whom fell the task 

 of general organization and editorship, we owe a debt of peculiar 

 gratitude ; for, shortly after the return of the expedition to civiliza- 

 tion, on receipt of tidings of heavy rain in the interior, he packed 

 bag and baggage and returned to collect whatever was afloat. Not 

 only so, but he is now again on the spot. While, thus, the 

 success of the expedition is largely due to his untiring energy and 

 enthusiasm, we may hope for further results at his very competent 

 hands ; and we congratulate him on his determination to develop the 

 knowledge of the indigenous fauna of his adopted land. 



Professor Tate and Mr. Hedlcy are responsible for the work done 

 upon some 2,000 mollusca, now preserved in the Australian Museum; 

 and there has arisen good reason for believing that these are the 

 survivors of a primitive fauna, and that many of them, under 

 the effects of isolation and marked climatic changes, have acquired the 

 habit of reproducing immediately the conditions are favourable. The 



1 A. Willey, Quart. Jouru. Micro. Sci. (n.s.), vol. civ, p. 323. 



2 H. A. Pilsbry, Proe. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad., 1894, p. 69. 



* C. Chilton, Trans. Linn. Soc. (Zool.), ser. II, vol. vi, p. 163. 



* Far(}uhar, Journ. Linn. Soc. (Zool.), vol xxvi, p. 186. [Now in press.] 



* G. M. Thomson, Trans. Linn. Soc. (Zool.), ser. li, vol. vi, p. 2iii). 



