Ixxx. PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



been possible to prove, through recent discoveries, that the 

 cockroaches of Palaeozoic times belong to our modern Order of 

 Orthoptera. 



To turn from fossils to the rocks themselves, I may note that 

 our hon. member, Mr. Jukes Browne, has completed an impor- 

 tant memoir on the upper chalk ; the Royal Commission on 

 coal has promised us 100,000,000,000 tons of coal, instead of 

 the 90,000,000,000 estimated in 1871, though we have used 

 nearly 6,000,000,000 in the interval ; the Coral Reef Committee 

 has issued its report on the Funafuti boring to the depth of 

 1,114^ feet; natural gas has been found at Aylesbury ; and 

 the largest diamond in the world has been discovered, more 

 than three times the size of any former one, and somewhat 

 resembling a goose's egg in shape. 



ASTRONOMY. 



The chief astronomical events are the discovery of no less 

 than three new satellites in our system a ninth (Phoebe) to 

 Saturn and a sixth and seventh to Jupiter the motion of 

 Phoebe being retrograde. Besides these, 32 new asteroids were 

 observed in 1904, bringing up their number to 553. Certain 

 changes upon the moon's surface have been noticed, which lead 

 to the belief that our satellite is still in what may be termed a 

 living state, and is perhaps not yet so entirely destitute of 

 moisture as has been supposed, some appearances being 

 attributed to hoar frost. A repulsive force of more than 

 1 8 times the strength of gravity is necessary to account for the 

 tails of comets, and light pressure has been suggested as the 

 cause. 



SEISMOLOGY. 



To return to the earth, our Indian Empire has just been 

 visited by a terrible earthquake of unprecedented severity, 

 causing great destruction of life and property. Whilst it can 

 scarcely be said that seismologists have yet determined with 



