336 



of his scientific -earnestness and knowledge. Our transactions 

 reveal no such depressing state as this. 



Geology has been well represented, and we may say con- 

 siderably advanced, by the assiduous labours and acute deduc- 

 tions of Mr. Howchin, who has pursued his examination of 

 the Mount Lofty Ranges and the southern parts of South 

 Australia, extending well into the interior, especially with 

 reference to the Cambrian glacial formation. He has done 

 honour to our Society, as well as to himself, by his persistent 

 prosecution of this question, in spite of many difficulties, so 

 as to connrm the truth of the glacial theory and establish 

 the exact age of the glacial period. Mr. Etheridge has added 

 to the list of South Australian Cambrian fauna some species 

 discovered by Mr. Howchin. Mr. Basedow has described the 

 geological features of the country in the far north-west and 

 has treated of the Tertiary exposures around Happy Valley ; 

 while Messrs. Iliffe and Basedow have discussed the question 

 of thrust conglomerates. 



In the Memoirs of the Royal Society have also been pub- 

 lished fasciculi giving detailed descriptions of the fossil bones 

 of gigantic extinct animals, from Lake Callabonna, by Pro- 

 fessor Stirling (Director of the South Australian Museum) 

 and Mr. A. H. C. Zietz (Sub-Director). The latter gentleman 

 has also had the pleasure of announcing recently the completion 

 of the restoration of the skeleton of the Diprotodon, the first 

 of its kind known in the world ; and he has read a note upon 

 an imj)ortant modification of certain portions of its vertebral 

 bones, which he has detected, and which suggests an underly- 

 ing law of variation according to position in the animal king- 

 dom. 



The allied department of Mineralogy and Petrology has 

 been very capably dealt with by Dr. Woolnough and Mr. Maw- 

 son, the past and jDresent lecturers on this subject at the Uni- 

 versity of Adelaide. 



In close association with this subject is one which has 

 excited considerable popular interest, some little commercial 

 speculation, and intense scientific excitement : radio-activity 

 and the radio-active substances. We have had important con- 

 tributions from Mr. Mawson and Mr. Radeliff on deposits of 

 lodes containing these peculiar minerals, with valuable analy- 

 ses of some of them by Professor Rennie. We have been en- 

 lightened and science has been enriched by accounts from 

 Professor Bragg of his investigations in the phvsical labora- 

 tory of the University, in reference to the radium emanations, 

 the alpha particles, etc., and the scientific generalizations to 

 which these investigations point — investigations which are 



