March 3, 1892] 



NATURE 



425 



Mr. J. H. Harvey discussed "The Application of Photo- 

 graphy to Geological Work." He urged the desirability of 

 having a photographer attached to every Geological Survey, and 

 the importance of conducting the photography of the various 

 surveys in a systematic and uniform manner. He submitted a 

 scheme in connection with the same, which, without a great 

 increase in the present expense, would, he considered, vastly 

 increase the value of the survey. 



Among the remaining papers were the following : " Sample 

 of Cone-in-cone Structure found at Picton, New South Wales," 

 by Mr. A. J. Sachs; "Notes on the Permo Carboniferous 

 Volcanic Rocks of New South Wales," by Prof. T. W. E. 

 David; "Notes on the Advantages of a Federal School of 

 Mines for Australasia," by Mr. J. Provis. 



SECTION D. 



Prof. W. Baldwin Spencer, of the Melbourne University 

 dealt in his presidential address with the fresh-water and terres- 

 trial fauna of Tasmania. He described the various species 

 found in Tasmania, and the distribution of these in other parts 

 of Australia, showing that, in such forms as the fresh-water fish, 

 reptiles, and amphibia, those found in Tasmania and some in 

 Victoria were very closely allied. He dealt with the original 

 introduction of the ancestors of the present animals of Aus- 

 tralia, and the way in which the descendants of these had 

 become distributed over the various parts, including Tasmania. 



Prof. Hutton, of Christchurch, New Zealand, read a paper on 

 "The Origin of the Struthious Birds of Australasia." The 

 struthious birds — that was, the ostriches, emus, cassowaries, and 

 kiwis — were confined to the southern hemisphere, except the 

 African ostrich, which ranged into Arabia, and they were sup- 

 posed to have originated in the northern hemisphere and 

 migrated southwards. But by this hypothesis there were great 

 difficulties in explaining how the struthious birds reached 

 Australia and New Zealand without being accompanied by 

 placental mammals. Also the struthious birds of New Zealand, 

 including the lately extinct moas, were smaller, and make a 

 nearer approach to the flying birds, from which the struthious 

 birds were descended, than did any of the others, and they 

 should expect to find the least altered forms near the place of 

 origin. The tiuamus of Central and South America, although 

 flying birds, resembled the New Zealand struthious birds in 

 several particulars ; and as a former connection between New 

 Zealand aud South America was shown by the plants, the frogs, 

 and the land shells, it seemed more probable that the struthious 

 birds of Australasia originated in the neighbourhood of New- 

 Zealand from flying birds related to the tinamus, and that they 

 spread from thence into Australia and New Guinea^ rather than 

 that they should have migrated southwards from Asia. Prob- 

 ably the ostriches of Africa and South America have a different 

 line of descent from the struthious birds of Australasia, and 

 might have originated from swimming birds in the northern 

 hemisphere. 



Prof. Spencer read a paper "On the Habits of Ceratodus, the 

 Lung Fish of Queensland." This fish, he stated, lives only in 

 the Burnett and Mary Rivers in Queensland, and belongs to a 

 small group which may be regarded as intermediate between 

 fishes on the one hand and amphibia on the other. The swimming 

 bladder present in ordinary fishes has become modified so that 

 it functions as a lung. In Africa, Protopterus, a form closely 

 allied to Ceratodus, makes for itself a cocoon of mud, in which 

 during the hot, dry season it lives and can breathe by means of 

 its lung. The Ceratodus, however, does not appear to do 

 this, and probably never leaves the water. It comes continually 

 to the surface, and passes out and takes in air, making a faint 

 spouting noise. The author suggested that the lung was of 

 the greatest service to the animal, not during the hot, but 

 during the wet season, when the rivers were flooded, and the 

 water thick with the sand brought down from the surrounding 

 country. With regard to its food, Ceratodus appeared to be 

 herbivorous, feeding, at all events largely, on vegetable matter, 

 such as the seeds of gum-trees which tumble into the water. 



Papers were contributed by Mr. F. M. Bailey, Government 

 Botanist of Queensland, on "Queensland Fungus Blights"; 

 by Colonel W. V. Legsje on " The Geographical Distribution of 

 Australian Limicolse"; by Mr. John Shirley on "A Re- 

 arrangement of the Queensland Lichens " ; and by Mr. A. F. 

 Robin on "The Preservation of Native Plants and Animals." 



NO. I 166, VOL. 45] 



Mr. W, A. Weymouth contributed a classified list of Tas- 

 manian mosses, based on Hooker's " Flora of Tasmania " 

 1853-59). Mitten's "Australian Mosses" (1882), Bastow's 

 "Mosses of Tasmania" (1886), and his own collection.s 

 (1887-91), as determined by European specialists. 



SECTION E. 



GEOGRAPHY. 



Captain Pasco, R.N., President of the Section, referred in his 

 opening address to early discoveries in Australia. The exploration 

 of the island of Tasmania, and the opening up of its varied re- 

 sources, were begun by Sir John Franklin. He might be recognized 

 as the founder of the Royal Society of Tasmania, and distinguished 

 himself in 1842 by crossing the island from New Norfolk to 

 Macquarie Harbour. Half a century ago Australia was con- 

 sidered to be a vast desert, containing possibly an inland sea, but 

 Stuart, McDowall, Gregory, Forest, Giles, and others had dis- 

 sipated that idea by exploring the continent from one side to 

 the other. He further dealt with the tides and currents of the 

 ocean, and their eff"ects generally upon the earth, the tempera- 

 ture and saltness of sea-water, and the direction and force of 

 the currents and times of high and low water. He concluded 

 by saying there was still a considerable area of this globe to be 

 subdued and peaceable dominion obtained within the Antarctic 

 Circle. Though Sir James Ross unfurled the British banner on 

 an island contiguous to the continent or extensive archipelago 

 (as the case might be), yet almost a blank upon the map 

 awaited the enterprise of the Anglo-Saxons located in the 

 southern hemisphere to emulate their forefathers in the north 

 by opening up the frozen zone. 



Mr. James M. Clymont, Koonya, Tasmania, read a paper on 

 " The Influence of Spanish and Portuguese Discoveries during 

 the First Twenty Years of the Sixteenth Century on the Theory 

 of an Antipodal Southern Continent." Mr. D. Murray gave 

 an account c f Mr. Lindsay's expedition in Western Australia 

 under the auspices of Sir Thos. Elder, giving extracts from his 

 despatches, narrating the journey from Fort Mueller to Queen 

 Victoria Springs, and thence to the Frazer Ranges. Want of 

 water had been a great and unexpected difficulty. There 

 seemed to have been a complete drought for at least a year over 

 this part of the continent. In the discussion ensuing, the 

 question of artesian wells was raised, and Mr. Murray explained 

 that while some of these wells in South Australia were unfit for 

 irrigation purposes, owing to the superabundance of salts of 

 soda, yet they were good enough for stock, &c., and that both 

 further north and further east over large areas the wells gave 

 water suitable for all purposes. 



Papers were contributed by Dr. Frazer, on "Volcanic Pheno- 

 mena in Samoa in l886 " ; by the Rev. J. B. W. Woollnough, 

 on " Iceland and the Icelander" ; by Captain Moore, R.N., on 

 " A Magnetic Shoal near Cossack, W. A. " ; and by Mr. A. C. 

 Macdonald, on "The Life and Works of Sir John Franklin." 



An elaborate and valuable paper on "Recent Explorations 

 and Discoveries in British New Guinea," was read by Mr. J. P. 

 Thomson. Referring to the natives, Mr. Thomson spoke of 

 their numerous tribal divisions, and of the almost correspondingly 

 different languages or dialects spoken by them. Even in localities 

 separated by only a few miles, the dialects spoken differ the one 

 from the other in some cases considerably. The Motu, which 

 is the language spoken and taught by the missionaries at Port 

 Moresby, is understood over a considerable area, both east and 

 west of that place, but outside that neighbourhood changes 

 and variations occur, so that at the head of the Great Papuan 

 Gulf, and in the Fly Basin, the Motu language is a foreign 

 tongue. The same applies to the eastern end, and to the 

 islands adjacent thereto, where the philological variations are 

 numerous and conflicting. While in the one case the people 

 met with in the highland zones of the Owen Stanley Range 

 spoke a dialect akin to that of the Papuan, those encountered on 

 the Upper Fly River expressed themselves in a tongue, every 

 word of which apparently differed Irom that spoken by the 

 tribes of the lower regions, and from that spoken by any known 

 coastal community, notwithstanding that the people themselves 

 exhibited no evidence of possessing distinctive characteristics of 

 race, the only marked contrast being in lightness of colour. 

 In the western division the same diversity of speech is met 

 with, where neighbouring tribes are unable to hold intercourse 

 one with the other, even if friendly, by reason of incompatibility 

 of language. No doubt this may in some measure be accounted 



