ROYAL SOCIETY, 



SEPTEMBER, 1868. 



The monthly evening meeting of the Fellows was held on Tuesday, the 

 15th September. The Hon. R. Officer, Esq., Vice-President in the chair. 



The Secretary (Dr. Agnew) laid on the table the following returns for 

 the past month : — 



1. Visitors to Museum, 514. 



2. Ditto to Gardens, 1,574. 



3. Plants, &c., received at Gardens : — From Mr. W. Knight, jun., a 



collection of seeds gathered in New Zealand. From A. Ver- 

 schaffelt, Ghent, Belgium, 391 papers. Seeds of trees, shrubs, 

 herbaceous plants, &c. ; 21 collections of florists' flowers, com- 

 prising 320 varieties. 



4. Plants, &c., sent from Gardens: — For decoration of grounds of 



Asylum, New Norfolk, 82 Plants. To Mr. R. Henderson, Sydney, 

 23 Plants ; 8 varieties cuttings. 



5. Tench supplied to Acclimatisation Society, Nelson, New Zealand, 7. 



6. Time of leafing, &c., of a few standard plants in Gardens. 



7. Books, &c., received. 



8. Presentations to Museum, 



Meteorological Returns. 



1. Hobart Town, from F. Abbott, Esq., table and summary for 



August. 



2. Swansea, from Dr. Story, table for July. 



3. Westbury, from F. Belstead, Esq., table for August. 



4. Tamar Heads, from R. Henry, Esq., table for August. 



6. Swan Island, Goose Island, King's Island, Kent's Group, South 

 Bruni, and Mount Nelson, monthly tables for the half-year ended 

 30th June, from the Marine Board. 

 The Secretary read a letter, from which the following is an extract, for- 

 warded by Mr. Boyd, of Port Arthur, giving a detailed description by 

 one of the overseers (Mr. F. A. Keith) of the remarkable tidal disturbance 

 at Long Bay, of the 15th August, which, as ^is well known, occurred on 

 the same day along the shores of all the Australian colonies and New 

 Zealand : — "At 9 a.m., at low water, a huge wave was seen entering the 

 Bay from the open sea, at the rate (as estimated) of about 11 or 12 milea 

 per hour. The force was such that logs of heavy blue gum timber, which 

 for years had been embedded in the sand, were washed ashore. A launch 

 at anchor in the Bay, was driven for a distance of 100 yards, dragging 

 her anchor and chain cable. A length of about 50 yards of a substanti- 

 ally built wooden jetty was swept away, and the rush of the water was so 

 rapid that several men at work on the jetty only saved their lives by leap- 

 ing into a launch which they had been engaged in loading. The water 

 having thus risen to the height of seven feet, receded as rapidly to the 

 extent of ten feet, the rise and fall together having occupied only fifteen 

 minutes. During the day many waves of a similar character rolled into 

 the Bay, the last, which occurred at a late hour, being even greater than 

 the one described, but as its rise and fall were much more slow and gradual, 

 the eflfects were not so remarkable." 



