339 



occupation. But it is vvoudeiiui iiow many species may be 

 found, if diligently and intelligently sought, where there 

 seemed but few. And then the degrees of tiieir variation can 

 be studied and measured. Besides this, there remains, after 

 their classification and enumeration, the deeper, more absorb- 

 ing, and shall 1 say the more elevating, investigation of their 

 physiology, rather than their anatomy, their real natural 

 history, the thousand-and-one questions which are raised by 

 an observation of their life, the answers to which will amply 

 reward as well as delightfully tax the j^atience and ingenuity 

 of the enquirer. 



■'The great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innu- 

 merable, both small and great beasts," has proved an abund- 

 ant storehouse. Dredging excursions undertaken of recent 

 years, confined at first to our two gulfs, but which have gradu- 

 ally extended fifty miles into the ocean, and to a depth of 

 30u fathoms, beyond what is known as "the continental shelf," 

 have provided material for congenial work to several of onr 

 members. Mr. Dennant, an Honorary Fellow, who has long 

 been engaged upon the Tertiary corals, has written several 

 papers on the recent corals o<f South Australia and Victoria, 

 and has figured many novel and lovely forms. Mr. W. H. 

 Baker has taken up the crustaceans, and his pencil has beau- 

 tifully illustrated what his pen has accurately described. Mr. 

 Basedow and Mr. Hedley have dealt with the Nudibranchs, 

 and Mr. Basedow with some Naticoid genera, in two papers, 

 which have been brilliantly but quite naturally adorned by 

 his capable brush ; and as leisure has permitted I have dealt 

 with some Gasteropod shells. 



Mr. Hedley, upon whom the distinction of an Honorary 

 Fellow was recently very properly and worthily conferred by 

 you, has supplied a paper upon some new land shells collected 

 by Mr. Basedow on the Government North-West Expedition. 



And last, though by no means least, if "the proper study 

 of mankind is man," are two valuable papers by Mr. H. 

 Basedow, •'Anthropological Notes," on certain aboriginal 

 tribes in the North- West of Australia and in the Northern 

 Territory. Here have been recorded and will be preserved 

 numerous observations on their physique, manners and cus- 

 toms, dietary, and primitive art. It has been enriched by 

 many photographs and coloured drawings, and will be a 

 valuable reference when the tribes have become extinct. 



Besides these papers we have had, of course, at every 

 meeting, exhibits of a very instructive ancl educational sort. 

 Minerals, fossils, plants, flowers, birds, fish, frogs, leeches, 

 insecte, crabs, spiders, and a remarkable new Hydroid (dis- 



