108 



were 4 feet o£ alluvial soil at tte top ; tlien about 16 feet of 

 a bluish bard clay ; tben 15 feet of a conglomerate, containing 

 in some cases jasper, and in others ironstone ; and next about 

 10 feet of a hard adamantine rock, under which was a white 

 gravel, which in most cases contained good water. The same 

 kind of sinking was met with at Morgan, except that there was 

 more of the blue clay in that neighbourhood, and one man who 

 sank a shaft there reached a depth of 90 feet, the chief part of 

 the strata passed through being blue clay, after which came 

 the conglomerate, and finally the hard adamant-like rock. 



Dr. Mayo exhibited some queen humble bees, which were 

 dispatched to him by Mr. Alfred Neighbour, of London, who 

 wrote that he had sent ten humble queens or mother bees. 

 The package had been placed under the care of the butcher of 

 the Sorata, to be kept in his ice-house, so that the bees might 

 remain in a dormant state. This seemed acknowledged to be 

 the onl}' condition in which it was possible to have the bees 

 safely carried. The receiver of the bees was advised by Mr. 

 Neighbour to open the boxes and allow the bees to fly (if 

 alive) in the middle of a fine day. Nothing could be done in 

 the way of provision for them ; they must be allowed to fly and 

 seek their own place for a nest. This plan was followed, when 

 the writer sent some of the bees to New Zealand last year, but 

 only two survived. The time of year when the letter was 

 written (February), or earlier in the winter, was chosen 

 because the fertile mothers only survived and hybernated so as 

 to come forth in the following summer as the founders of a 

 nest or colony. Dr. Mayo remarked that he had tried two or 

 three times to get the bees out alive, but had failed. Seven of 

 the bees arrived, and unfortunately these all proved to be 

 dead. Dr. Mayo was thanked for the trouble he had taken in 

 this matter, and a hope was expressed that his next experiment 

 would prove more successful. 



Mr. C. A. "Wilson made a few remarks on M. Maxime 

 Cornu's work entitled " Studies on the Phylloxera vastatrix,'" 

 which he temporarily placed at the disposal of the members of 

 the Society. He received the volume from the Commissioner 

 of CrownLands through the agency of Sir Arthur Blyth and 

 Mr. A. E. Wallace, about a year ago. It was written in 

 French, and had added to it many plates of the insects spoken 

 of shown in all their stages, and beautifully tinted. The work 

 was accompanied by a translation in English. 



Mr. T. D. Smeaton read a paper by Mr. J. G. 0. Tepper, 

 r.L.S., entitled " Notes and Descriptions of some Kare South 

 Australian Lepidoptera," with coloured figures. Mr. Smeaton 

 also read a paper by Mr. Tepper entitled " Notes on some New 

 Australian Plants." 



