Miscellanies. 20^ 



their surveys on the southern coast of Ceram, and the coast of New 

 Guinea. The westerly monsoon now drawing to a close, they pro- 

 ceeded to Raffles Bay, in Australia, where the English for some time 

 had a settlement; they also visited the colony at Port Essington, 

 which had just been founded under the superintendence of Captain 

 Bremer. They surveyed the whole extent of the western coast of 

 4he Arron isles ; spent three days at the anchorage of Aobo, and vis- 

 ited the fort which the Dutch once owned in the isle of Wokam, but 

 which is now a heap of ruins. They also halted five days at the head 

 of Triton Bay, where the Dutch have lately established a small set- 

 tlement. The coast of New Guinea was carefully examined from this 

 point to the southern extremity of Maclure's passage. Retracing 

 their steps, they employed three days in the anchorage of Warou, in 

 Ceram. In May, they took the bearings of the northern coasts of 

 Ceram and Bouron, the most southerly part of Bouton, as also of 

 Celebes, then the Straits of Salayer, as far as Macassar. They then 

 bore straight away for Borneo, where they examined the coast at 

 Salatan point, and finally made sail for Batavia, where they arrived 

 on the 8th of June, 1S39. It was expected that the expedition 

 would reach home in twelve or fifteen months from that date. 



30. Proceedings of the 3Iicroscopical Society of London. (A. G.) — The 

 Microscopical Society of London held their first meeting on Wednesdayj 

 Jan. 29th, at the Horticultural Society's rooms, No. 21, Regent Street. 

 The meeting was attended by upwards of a hundred members and vis- 

 itors. 



The President, Prof. Owen, announced that since the provisional meet- 

 ing on the 20th of December last, for the purpose of forming the Society, 

 the number of members had increased to one hundred and ten, and a 

 farther addition of twenty-nine names was announced in the course of 

 the evening, making a total of one hundred and thirty-nine original mem- 

 bers, it having been determined that those who joined the Society on or 

 before the first night of meeting should be considered original mem- 

 hers. 



Mr. Owen communicated a paper on the application of microscopic 

 examinations of the structure of teeth to the determination of fossil re- 

 mains. After alluding to the essential service rendered to the chemist, 

 mineralogist, and vegetable physiologist, he proceeded to offer a few ex- 

 amples of the utility of the microscope to the investigation of the struc- 

 ture of fossilized teeth. 



The first example adduced was that of the Saurocephalus, an Ameri- 

 can fossil animal, which had been referred to the class of reptiles. After 

 pointing out the distinctive characters of the microscopic texture of the 

 ieeth in reptiles and fishes, it was shewn that the Saurocephalus, accord^. 



