PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION E. 361 



The late Mx'. Victor Streich, who was geologist to the Elder 

 Expedition, referred to booming sounds heard at Eraser Range 

 Station, at Yilgarn, and at Annean Station, Western Australia 

 (see Trans. Royal Soc, S.A., Vol. XVI., pp. 119-120). He said, 

 ** I feel convinced that this noise is not caused by any force of 

 geological or terrestrial origin ; but as these places from which the 

 phenomenon in question is reported belong to the most arid regions 

 of Australia, in which nothing but the meteorological conditions 

 are alike, it must be assumed that these subaerial conditions are 

 the cause. I should think that they are detonations resulting from 

 electrical discharges, in the form of a glow discharge, which, while 

 spreading over a large area, is less perceptible, and is said to occur 

 more frequently in a dry continental climate during a dry thunder- 

 storm." 



Although the opinion expressed by Mr. Streich is quoted herein, 

 it is only Just to say that he did not hear the sounds himself, and, 

 a? he was not acquainted with the diversity of sounds heard in 

 different localities in Central Australia, his opinion can only apply 

 to the reports he received in Western Australia. 



3. THE FOUNDATION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF 

 MELBOURNE. 



By Miss Marjorie Masson. 



THE DISCOVERY OF TERRA AUSTRALIS. 

 By E. A. PethericJc, F.E.G.S., F.L.S. 



5. A RECENT VISIT TO PORT ARTHUR, ITS PRISOIT, 

 AND CONVICT CHURCH. 



By John McMahon. 



ia) AUSTRALIAN HISTORY : DISPOSAL OF DUPLICATES OF 

 ^ CERTAIN GOVERNMENT DESPATCHES. 



{See Vol. xiii., p. 58.) 



Report by Prof. G. C. Henderson, M.A., President of Section E 

 AT the Sydney Meeting. 

 At the last meeting of the Australian Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science, at Sydney, in January, 1911, the following 

 resolution was passed: — " In the opinion of this Association, it is 

 desirable that the governing bodies of the Public Libraries of 



