ASTRONOMICAL AND METEOROLOGICAL WORKERS. 57 



partaken rather of the character of a Mutual Friendly Association, than of 

 that of a more formal body, [t was, in other words, a Scientific Club. At 

 that time there were no public libraries and scarcely a bookseller's shop in 

 the Colony ; but the members possessed books of their own ; these were 

 catalogued and leut by one to another, so that the use of them was 

 reciprocal. The business of the Society was transacted at the dwelling- 

 houses of the members in succession, where memoirs, prepared on an 

 alternative of a tine of ten pounds sterling, were read and discussed, the 

 only refreshment allowed being a cup of coffee and a biscuit, an arrangement 

 still in vogue, I believe, in England, and which was followed here in later 

 times at the meetings of our Society in IS.^o-SG. 



I have not been able to discover more than four of the papers read by 

 members, and these were preserved as a portion only of the Society's 

 Transactions, and edited by Judge Field in his " Geographical Memoirs of 

 New South Wales by various hands," published by John Murray, of 

 Albemarle Street, in the year 1 825. These papers were the following : — 



1. " On the Aborigines of New Holland and Van Dieman's Land," by 



Barron Field, Fsq., read '2ud January, 1822. 



2. " On the Geology of part of the Coast of New South Wales," (from 



the River Hunter to the Clyde), read in the same year by 

 Alexander Berry, Esq. 



3. " On the Astronomy of the Southern Hemisphere," by Dr. Rumker, 



read on the 13th March, 1822 ; and 



4. "On the Mai'itime Geography of Australia," by Captain Philip 



Parker King, H.N., read 2nd October, 1822. 



In Mr. Field's book there are also papers by Mr. Oxley, and meteorological 

 notices by Major Goulburn and Sir Thomas Brisbane. We have evidence, 

 therefore, that at least seven of the twelve were working members. 



Mr. Allan Cunningham, the Botanist, (whose death I recollect at the 

 Botanical Gardens shortly after my arrival in 1839), also contributed 

 two papers, the one describing his traverse from Bathurst to Liverpool 

 Plains in 1823; the other " On the Botany of the Blue Mountains," as 

 observed in November and December, 1822. 



As these last papers do not appear to have been read before the Society, 

 it is probable that Mr. Cunningham was not a member of it. But, without 

 doubt, the actual members did good service to the Colony. Of only one of 

 these memoirs do I venture to form an opinion, and that is one which I 

 expressed in 1860 in my book on the Southern Gold Fields, in the following 

 words: — "In the year 1822 my respected friend, Alexander Berry, Esq., 

 read a very interesting paper on the geology of the Clyde River before the 

 Philosophical Society of Australasia. At that early period Mr. Berry had 

 successfully made out all the prominent features of the district, as well as 

 along the coast, and has pointed out the vertical strata of schist, the quartz, 

 the trap, and the sandstone, with their order of succession. It gives me 

 great satisfaction to mention this, ' (p. 45.) * * » « 



The Philosophical Society, which thus commenced with flattering 

 pi'omises of future usefulness, was destined to only a brief period of service. 

 A question arose between the Government and some of the members which 

 led to estrangement. The friendly meetings became fewer, and the fictitious* 

 variable value assigned to the dollar (the coin then current) was the cause 

 of breaking up the little band who cultivated science for the love of it. 



Judge Field thus speaks of that mishap, in connection with the seven 

 memoirs before mentioned ; — "Such of them (i.e., of the several documents 

 in his book) as are parts of the Transactions of the Philosophical Society of 

 Australasia are printed by permission of their respective authors ; for I am 

 sorry to add, that the infant Society soon expired in the baneful atmosphere 

 of distracted politics which unhappily clouded the short administration of 

 its President, the present (i.e. the then) Governor of New South W'ales." 



♦Official History of New South "Wales says Sir Thomas Brisbane had established 

 a currency which had the eflect of raising the pound sterling 25 per cent. (p. 30.) 



