— Ml — 



I was requested to see Iiim, and regularly attended to him 

 during his stay in Sydney. The season being sultry, it was 

 thought advisable to remove him to a cooler part of the 

 country, an arrangement in what he also concurred ; Berrima 

 was fixed upon, having a cool mountain air, rather more than 

 2,000 feet above the level of the sea, and distant 83 miles 

 from Sydney, and moreover, easily reached by railroad — a 

 great advantage to an invalid. He did not, however, derive 

 the expected benefit from the change ; although the evenings 

 were so cold as to require a fire, his appetite did not at all 

 improve, and consequently the debility increased ; he gra- 

 dually sank and died, on the 26th of February, in the full pos- 

 session oF his senses. 



" He was attended to by his sister (Miss Mell er) who ac- 

 companied him from the Mauritius, and who has since left for 

 England {via Mauritius), the early part of this month. 



" Sydney, March 15th 1869. 



" (Signed ) Geoegb Bennett." 



Mr. Bruce wished to make a remark with reference to 

 the work on Mauritius^ on the completion of which the 

 Eoyal Society had agreed to combine its energies. It was 

 hoped that the united and continuous efforts which the 

 work would demand would give a fresh and lively impe- 

 tus to the Society. There had not, indeed, been wanting 

 persons to remind him of the difficulties to be encountered, 

 and of the ill-success which had hitherto met somewhat 

 similar efforts on the part of the Society. Mr. Bruce 

 believed, however, that if a good point of view were 

 chosen, the obstacles referred to would assume less alarm- 

 ing proportions. For instance the population of the 

 300,000 souls, if on an average, each of these beings 

 gifted with intelligence and reason were to contribute one 

 single natural or historical fact to the general fund, Ave 

 should then be able to produce a work of real benefit to 

 Society ; that would be a wonderful " ladder to learning ^^ 

 with 300,000 rounds of fact. Of the importance of the 

 work undertaken, ISlv. Bruce said he had been largely 



