ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 203 
J. P. Dameron stated that he had been experimenting on the 
propagation of Oysters and would shortly describe a method dis- 
covered by himself. 
Mr. Scupham read a paper suggesting that steps be taken by 
the Academy to assist in bringing about the resumption of the 
Geological Survey. 
On motion of Mr. Scupham, a Committee was appointed to ex- 
amine into the matter and report at the next meeting. Messrs. 
Scupham, Blake and Ashburner, were appointed as such Com- 
mittee. 
Mr. Stearns made the following remarks on the death of Hon. 
B. P. Avery: 
Mr. President and Members of the Academy: 
Since our last meeting the telegraph has brought us sad news 
—information of the death of our fellow-member, the Hon. Ben- 
jamin Parke Avery, United States Minister to China, who died 
in the early part of November at the city of Peking. 
The many excellences of the deceased, the co-operative spirit 
which he ever manifested in all matters pertaining to the welfare 
of his fellow-men—quietly, because he was singularly modest 
and undemonstrative, yet nevertheless persistently pursuing the 
even tenor of what he considered his duty—and that duty the 
advancement of civilization in a new State, the promotion of 
knowledge, whether in Literature, Science, or Art—and the 
general refinement and elevation of the commonwealth in which 
he had made his home; such qualities and such services make it 
eminently proper that we should inscribe on the permanent rec- 
ords of the Academy an appreciative recognition of his life and 
labors, as well as an appropriate expression of our esteem, and 
of sorrow for his loss. 
With the example of his unassuming but honorable career be- 
fore us—too brief but yet well filled with useful work—it would 
be in discord with its harmony to expand these remarks into 
formal eulogy. 
In a letter dated July 5th of this year, the last which I re- 
ceived, he wrote: 
