140 EEV. W. WOOLLSj PH.D., P.L.S.^ ON THE 



gives a suggestion to those who ai'e engaged in extending tlie 

 system of irrigation to other countries. 



Tlie PKEsii>Exr. — It is well-known that some rocks give fresh 

 water and others salt water. That is a thing which depends very 

 much on the manner in which they are formed. These artesian 

 wells pierce down into the strata which are very often of marine 

 origin, contain sometimes salt in their pores and crevices — the salt 

 water of the primeval ocean in which they were formed — and it is 

 only by actual experiment that it can be determined whether the 

 water which comes from them will be salt or fresh. 



The Secretary, having read a few letter's expressive of 

 sympathy on the death of Dr. Woolls, said: — Having been 

 personally acquainted Avith Dr. Woolls for many years, I may be 

 permitted perhaps to add a few words to what has been said. 

 Dr. Woolls was seventeen years old when his father died, and he 

 went out there in the year 1831. He first was taken notice of by 

 Bishoj) Broughton, the first Bishop of Sydney, who died shortly 

 after I myself arrived in the colony. Dr. Woolls at first devoted 

 himself to literature, and then he was ajipointed assistant master 

 in Paramatta School. After that he went out to an old friend, a 

 Mr. Cope, in Sydney, and was appointed assistant master in hia 

 school. Finally he took up the study of botany and settled down 

 at Paramatta — that was about the year 1836 — -and from that time 

 he has devoted himself entirely to the study of the botany of 

 Australia. Sir Frederick Woolner has assured me that there was 

 not another man in the whole of Australia who was such a capable 

 botanist as he. (Loud applause.) I I'egret to say that it was only 

 just after finishing the paper that the author was attacked with 

 paralysis. 



The Meeting then broke up. 



Comments by Baron Sir F. vON Mukllkr, Ph.D., M.D., LL.D., 

 F.R.S.:— 



The Council of the Victoria Institute having through its inde- 

 fatigable and accomplished Hon. Secretary done me the honour of 

 submitting to me for remarks the pi-oof print of a treatise on the 

 " Australian Flora," by the Rev. Dr. Woolls, I wish in the first 



