Ixxxii 



Mr. J. McC. Browxe laid on the table an extract from the -4ms- 

 U-alasian Shipping News, in which, under the heading "A Travelled 

 Whale " it was stated that in a late issue of the John o' Groat Journal, 

 Scotland, an account was given of the capture in Behring's Straits in 

 June, 1883, of an enormous whale, 62ft. long, and weighing 72 tons, 

 which was found on being cut up to contain embedded in its blubber a 

 harpoon with the words "Henty, L. 1838," branded on it. It is well 

 known that that old 3olonial family, the Hentys, had in the year above 

 given a whaling establishment at Portland, Victoria, and that they had 

 a number of harpoons for that establishment made for them at Laun- 

 ceston, for which town probably the initial L stands. 



Mr. Browxe stated that the Hentys had no whaling vessels, but 

 whaled from the shore at Portland Bay, after some years they sold oflf 

 all their whaling plant which was bought by owners of whaling vessels, 

 some of these vessels are known to have fished in the Northern 

 Hemisphere," where the whale was probably struck, and carried away 

 the harpoon. 



Mr. Stephens said he had drawn the attention of Baron Von 

 Mueller to a beautiful light purple fungus which had been found on the 

 slopes of Mount Wellington. The fungus being too fragile to bring into 

 town, a drawing made by Miss Walker, of Rhodes, N.S.W., had been 

 forwarded to the Baron, who had identified it as a species of Clavaria 

 and had since sent the following note on the subject: — *'I sent the 

 drawing to the great specialist. Dr. Cooke, pointing out that the fungus 

 was near Clavaria Amethi/stina^ but differed somewhat in colour, and 

 suggested the name C. lilarina. He, however, regards it as the real 

 species of Fries. It is new to Tasmania, indeed to Australia, so perhaps 

 it is worthy of notice at your Royal Society, if it was only to show that 

 fungi need yet much to be studied there." 



THE CALCUTTA EXHIEITIOX. 



Mr. Just said he had presented the Society with a collection of ethno- 

 logical specimens, consisting of bows and arrows, dresses, and orna- 

 ments worn and used by the natives of the Andaman Islands, which he 

 had been fortunate in obtaining through the instrumentality of Mr. V. 

 Portman, assistant superintendent at the Andaman andKicobar Islands. 

 While the exhibition was going on the Government of India took steps 

 to have casts taken of some of the native races and wild tribes of India, 

 representatives of which were present in Calcutta at the time. He ap- 

 plied for duplicates of some of the casts before he left, and if the hon. 

 secretary would follow up his action there would be no difficulty in 

 obtaining the casts, and Dr. Watt, the curator of the Economical 

 Museum in Calcutta would take care that proper dresses were sup- 

 plied for them. The Lieut. -Governor of Bengal had written to him, 

 promising him a complete set of the economic products of India, and 

 ottier interesting specimens which he hoped to see presented to the 

 society for the museum. He had further handed over to Mr. Morton 

 for the Museum 111 specimens of the diets of India, and a collection of 

 fishes, which were presented by Doctor Kanny Loll Dey, the principal 

 Hindoo native physician in Calcutta, and also a box containing rocks 

 of various kinds, presented by Dr. Anderson, curator of the Imperial 

 Museum, Calcutta. A valuable box of books had been forwarded through 

 by the Government of India to the Tasmanian Government, and, as in 

 all probability many of them would be of special interest to the Fellows 

 of the Society, he would endeavour to have a selection made, and with 

 the approval of the Chief Secretary, add them to the Royal Society's 

 library. He might also state that Dr. King, curator of the Botanical 

 Gardens at Calcutta would be happy to exchange specimens with the 

 Hobart Botanical Gardens. 



