438 Anniversary Meeting. [Dec. 1, 



again without finding the solid rock. Samples of the materials obtained 

 at different depths in these three borings have been forwarded to the 

 Society by the War Department, and Professor Judd has kindly under- 

 taken their microscopic examination, and will shortly report the results 

 of his labours to the Committee in charge of the subject. 



With regard to the continuance of the borings, which seem to 

 promise information of great value and interest, it is to be feared that 

 the attention of the military authorities will for some time to come be 

 attracted to more urgent business, though the Council of this Society 

 has expressed its willingness to grant from the Donation Fund a 

 further sum of 20G/., with the view of obtaining better apparatus for 

 boring than that which has hitherto been employed. 



The publication of the rasults of the " Challenger " Expedition, 

 with which a Committee of this Society is to some extent concerned, 

 has made considerable progress during the past year. Mr. Murray 

 informs me that 47 Reports, forming 13 large quarto volumes, with 

 6276 pages of letter-press, 1051 lithographic plates, many woodcuts, 

 charts, and other illustrations, have now been published. Nine other 

 Reports are now being printed, and the eleventh Zoological volume and 

 the first Botanical volume will be issued during the present financial 

 year. 



The work connected with the remaining thirty-six memoirs is 

 making satisfactory progress, a large instalment of the manuscript 

 being already prepared, and many of the plates either already printed 

 off or drawn on the stone. 



There has been an unavoidable delay in the case of the two volumes 

 containing the narrative of the cruise, and a general account of the 

 scientific results of the Expedition, but it is expected that they will 

 be issued within the next three months, and possibly before the end 

 of the current year. 



It was estimated that the investigations connected with the collec- 

 tions and observations made during the Expedition would be completed 

 and published in 1887, and Mr. Murray has every reason to believe 

 that the work will be finished within the estimated time. 



The tenth Zoological volume which has just been issued, contains 

 important Reports on the Nudibranchiata, Myzostomida, and Cirripedia, 

 by Drs. Rudolph Berg, L. von Graff, and P. P. C. Stock, as well as on 

 the Cheilostomata, a sub-order of the Polyzoa, by Mr. George Busk. 

 A first instalment of the Anthropological Report is also given by 

 Professor William Turner, in a detailed examination of the human 

 crania, upwards of 60 in number, brought home by the Expedition. 

 The total number of crania, however, described and tabulated in the 

 memoir is 143, the whole from aboriginal and as yet uncivilised 

 people. The previous Zoological volume is devoted to an exhaustive 

 examination of the Foraminifera, by Mr. H. B. Brady. 



