8 



11. (Name of donor not sent). Specimens of Crayfish "found some 



two or three feet beneath the surface of the ground, chiefly in 

 moist places at roots of trees, and from about 100 to 500 feet above 

 running water, on North-west Coast of Tasmania," 



12. From Mr. 0. H. Hedberg— A Crayfish, from the Hobart Town 



rivulet, Fern-tree Valley. 



13. From Mr. Spencer— Sample of Coal from Jerusalem. 



14. From Miss Knight— A Fish (Capros australis) caught at Sandy 



Bay. 



15. From Mr. Harbroe— A Fish (Scorpcena S79.j caught at Eisdon. 



16. From Mr. S. Dove — Specimen of dendrites on Sandstone, from 



Knocklofty. 



17. From F. "W. Hutton, Esq., Director of Otago Museum, Dunedin— 



An Arctic Fox ( Vulp>es lagopiis) from Iceland. A King Bird of 

 ViiVdi(\i^e( Ckhinnrus reghis )ivom. New Guinea. 



18. From Lieutenant Langdon, E.N.— Two Notes (5 piasters and 25 



centimes) of National Bank of Hayti. 



19. From Master Hull — Specimens of a paper-like substance from the 



reservoir at Cascades. 



20. From the Rev. G. Brown — A collection of Ornaments made by 



natives of New Britain iind New Ireland, viz. : — Shell and 

 tortoiseshell annlets, a nose ornament, a large neck ditto, shell 

 money, a small basket, and a kind of Jews-harp, from New Britain. 

 (This instrument is remarkable from bemg cojistructed exactly 

 on the principle of the common Jew's-harp — that is, two external 

 arms with a small vibrating tongue between them. When touched 

 by Mr. Browai the sound j)roduced was almost identical with that 

 of the Jew's-harp). Two neck ornaments, one head ditto, a rattle 

 and a string of shell money, from New Ireland. A shell armlet, 

 from the Solomon Islands. Also twelve prepared bird skins from 

 Duke of York Island, New Britain, and Fiji. Specimens of Chalk 

 from New Ireland. 

 The Eev. W. W, Spicer read some notes, and a communication from 

 Baron Ferd. von Mueller, on the curious confervoid substance from the 

 Cascades reservior. (Presentation No. 19.) 



The Rev. G. Browx, C.M.Z.S., having been introduced by the Secre- 

 tary, was kind enough, agreeably to request, to favor the meeting with 

 some very interesting observations descriptive of the various islands he 

 had recently visited, v»dth remarks on the inhabitants, their language, 

 manners, and customs. The islands referred to were New Britain, New 

 Ireland, and the Duke of York Group. A description, in the Proceedings 

 of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, of many objects of Natural 

 History collected in these islands was noticed and extracts from it read. 

 As to the ethnology of the people, it was evident they were true Papuans. 

 This was proved "by colour, their thick curly matted hair, the gram- 

 •matical construction of the language, and also by some of their manners 

 and customs. Illustrative of some of these remarks, the speaker instanced 

 the different construction of the words " my face," "your face," "his 

 face," in the Samoan, Fijian, and Duke of York languages, showing the 

 similarity of grammatical construction in the latter two, and its differ- 

 ence from the Samoan and other ]\Iala5^o-Pol3aiesian dialects. It was 

 suggested that the peculiarly sacred relation sustained by the sister 

 and sister's children to the brother's children (called by the name of 

 Tamaha in Tonga, Tamafatine or Tama-Sa in Samoa, and Vasu in Fiji) 

 would be found to be one of the distinguishing marks of connection 

 between the Malayo-Polpiesian races ; whilst the custom of dividing 

 all the people into two classes, called respectively "Pickalaba" and 

 " Maramara " in the Duke of York dialect would probably be found to 



