OF THE AUSTRALIAN MEETING. 691 
Members had there not been a temporary cessation of enrolments 
directly after the outbreak of war. 
Tur Mrrstina IN AUSTRALIA. 
Western Australia. 
Outward Voyages of Advance Party.—About seventy visiting 
Members, who became known collectively as the Advance Party, visited 
Western Australia for a stay in most cases of a week, but in some 
of a fortnight or even longer, before the main party arrived in Aus- 
tralia. Of those who stayed a week most arrived by the Blue Funnel 
steamer Ascanius, which made a special call at Fremantle (the port of 
Perth, W.A.) in order to land the party. A few arrived by the P. & O. 
mail steamer (via Suez), which reached Fremantle on July 28, the 
same date as the Ascanius. 
A good deal of research definitely planned in relation to the Australian 
Meeting was carried on during the voyage out by some members of 
the Advance Party. On the Ascanius, for example, Professor W. G. 
Duffield made observations on the variations in the force of gravity over 
the ocean, and Professor W. A. Herdman examined and preserved 
samples of the plankton from the surface waters running continuously 
through fine silk nets, day and night, between Liverpool and Fremantle. 
Both these researches were very materially promoted by the managers 
of the Blue Funnel Line, who most generously fitted up a special 
laboratory for each of these purposes and gave special facilities for 
carrying on the work. Research was also carried out on other routes, 
and on the return voyages. 
Public Lectures, &¢., in Western Australia.—Some little delay in 
the arrival of the Ascanius on July 28 interfered in some measure with 
the arrangements for that day, but that evening Professor W. A. Herd- 
man, F.R.S., was able to give the first Association lecture in the Museum 
Lecture Hall at Perth, with His Excellency the Governor of Western 
Australia, Sir Harry Barron in the chair, the subject being ‘ Why We 
Investigate the Ocean.’ After expressing the gratitude of the visitors 
for their reception in Western Australia and their appreciation of the 
labour which had been expended throughout the centres to be visited, in 
preparation for the Meeting, Professor Herdman approached the subject- 
matter of his lecture principally from the point of view of the establish- 
ment and development of marine fisheries, with especial reference to the 
potentialities of Australian waters. He also discussed the investigation, 
exploitation, and regulation of the fisheries of North-western Europe, 
illustrating by means of lantern slides the methods there employed, while 
another series of slides illustrated the reproduction and growth of the 
more valuable fishes found in British waters, and their dependence upon 
the more minute organisms forming the plankton of the ocean. 
Subsequently official lectures were given in Perth as follows :— 
July 31, at the Museum, Professor A. 8. Eddington, F.R.S., on 
‘ Stars and Their Movements,’ the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Edward 
Stone, in the chair. The lecturer discussed the census of stars and their 
classification according to age by means of their spectra, of which 
Yew 
