PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. Ixi. 



Turning to fossils, the fossil fauna of the Crimea has lately 

 been described, one of the most interesting species being 

 a giraffe-like ruminant (Achtiaria expectans}. A skeleton 

 of Gigantosaurus , 150 feet long, or about twice the length 

 of the Diplodocus in the British Museum, has been found in 

 German East Africa, and was destined to be set up in the 

 Berlin Museum. May we not now hope that it may take 

 a different course and stand near its smaller relative in 

 London ! Two remarkable new types of Dinosaurs have 

 also been found in the cretaceous formations of Alberta. 

 At the British Museum amongst newly-acquired fossil 

 skeletons are to be seen one of the Egyptian Eocene two- 

 horned ungulate Arsinoetherium, 11 1 feet long, and a nearly 

 perfect specimen of Opthalmosaurus, about 13 feet in length, 

 from the Peterborough Oxford clay, mounted on an iron 

 frame with the bones approximately in their original positions. 

 A still more interesting fossil is that of Icthyosaurus acutirostris 

 from the Upper Lias, Wiirtemburg, in which the soft parts 

 remain as a bituminous impression in the rock. The 

 triangular dorsal fin and the vertically extended tail fin are 

 clearly visible. In the Mammoth cave, in Western 

 Australia, remains have been found of a huge Echidna, 

 about double the size of the living Echidna aculeata, and 

 also larger than any other known extinct form. I have 

 left to the last the work done by Mr. C. S. Prideaux and 

 others at the Dewlish Elephant Trench, which was so 

 successfully and carefully excavated, proving, I believe in 

 the opinion of all, even the strongest upholders of the theory 

 of its artificial origin, that it was a natural chasm in the rock. 

 As we are hoping to receive a full report on the subject of 

 the probable method of its formation, I forbear to say more 

 at present about it. 



ASTRONOMY. 



The probability of the transmission of gravity being iion- 

 instantaneous has been brought forward, with calculations 



