200 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE. 
anticipated that half of the species will be new. The collections are 
at least large enough to be used for basing deductions as to the relation- 
ships of the Seychelles considered entomologically. 
Mr. Fryer proceeded on our arrival to investigate Bird and Dennis, 
two coral islands on the north of the Seychelles bank. He remained 
a month in them, and then proceeded to visit the islands to the N.W. 
of Madagascar, left uninvestigated by the Percy Sladen Expedition in 
H.M.S. Sealark in 1905. It will be some years before his results can 
obtain final form, but I append his preliminary report on his investiga- 
tions. Meantime I cannot refrain from expressing my high appre- 
ciation of Mr. Fryer’s pluck and resource in carrying on his researches 
in these islands for six months, during which he never saw a white man. 
During the past year the first volume of the results of the investiga- 
tions (Trans. Linn. Soc., Vol. XII.) has been completed by the publica- 
tion of the following reports:—The Madreporarian Corals: I.—The 
Family Fungiide (J. Stanley Gardiner); A List of the Freshwater 
Fishes, Batrachians, and Reptiles (G. A. Boulenger); Antipatharia 
(C. Forster Cooper); Amphipoda Gammaridea (A. O. Walker); The 
Stylasterima (S. J. Hickson and Helen M. England); Polychaeta.— 
Part I.—The Amphinomide (F. A. Potts); Marine Alge (Chorophycee 
and Pheophycez) and Marine Phanerogams (A. Gepp and Mrs. C. S. 
Gepp). 
The following reports have also been read at the Linnean Society 
and are in course of publication:—Marine Nemerteans (R. C. Punnett . 
and C. Forster Cooper); Echinoderms (Professor Jeffrey Bell); 
Rhynchota (W. L. Distant); Cirripedia (Professor Gruvel); Further 
Amphipoda (A. O. Walker); Marine Mollusca (J. Cosmo Melvill); 
Land Mollusca of Seychelles (E. R. Sykes); Lepidoptera (T. Bam- 
bridge Fletcher); Alcyonaria (Professor J. Arthur Thomson); Amphi- 
oxides (H. O. Gibson); Further Chaetopoda (F. A. Potts); Penzidea, 
Stenopidea, and Reptantia (L. A. Borradaile); and Marine Deposits 
(Sir John Murray). J. Srantey GARDINER. 
Mr. Fryer’s Preliminary Report. 
IT arrived in Mahé about the middle of July, and after some delay, 
which enabled me to visit Bird and Dennis Islands, I left Mahé on 
August 22 for Aldabra, visiting en route the islands of Astove, Cosmo- 
ledo, and Assumption. These four islands, which all lie some 200 to 
250 miles north (N.N.W.) of Madagascar, must be considered as very 
closely allied in regard to their structure and formation. It seems 
necessary to include in this group the islands of Farquhar, Providence, 
and St. Pierre, which I had no opportunity of visiting, but which were 
investigated by the previous expedition on H.M.S. Sealark. 
ASTOVE. 
I reached Astove on August 27, and left on September 1, hoping 
to revisit the island in January, in which, however, I was disappointed. 
The island is a perfect atoll, which has been elevated for at least 25 feet. 
It is some two miles long by one mile broad, with a single pass on the 
south-west, opening into a shallow lagoon. The basis of the land rim 
is entirely formed of coral rock, which almost everywhere shows clearly 
on the surface, though blown sand has in places formed small dunes. 
