Proceedings. 161 
with drugs, and called “ Medicinal Teas,” of which specimens were 
forwarded direct from China to the Exhibition of All Nations. 
His Excellency the President submitted a paper by Mr. Robert 
Crawford, on the cultivation, mode of dressing, and cost of Flax, 
raised upon the estate of Skelton Castle, the property of Captain 
Dixon, on the Isis, which was read. 
A paper prepared by Dr. Meyer, of New Norfolk, giving an 
account of experiments on the cultivation and extraordinary yield 
of Italian rye-grass, subjected to irrigation with manures in solu- 
tion, was read. 
The Secretary submitted the following extract from a note by 
Captain Kay, R.N., Director of the Magnetic Observatory, Hobart 
Town, in reply to an inquiry on the subject of the Aurora of the 
4th and 5th of September last :— 
“ We have only observations recorded at 2 p.m., 10 p.m.,andat6am. I 
cannot, therefore, tell you what may have been going on between these hours. 
The Auroral Light was very distinctly visible on the evening of the 4th; and 
on reference to the disturbance observations, I find that the magnets were all 
affected by it, and continuous observations carried on until after midnight, at 
which time the Aurora appears to have subsided. It was very brilliant about 
9 p.m., pulsating with great rapidity, and shooting up violet-coloured streamers 
of light toward the zenith. Its brilliancy was, however, much diminished by 
the strong moonlight. I have seen much more brilliant Auroral Lights in 
Van Diemen’s Land; as for instance those of 1847. 
‘¢Tts effects upon the magnets was a deflection of the north end of the 
directive needle to the west, and considerable diminution of the horizontal and 
vertical components of the intensity. On the evening of the 5th there was 
not any disturbance at all at 10 p.m.” 
Mr. Milligan stated that he observed the Aurora of the 4th from 
9 to 10 o'clock p.m., (when it began to wane), at Oyster Cove, in 
D’Entrecasteaux Channel; that in Hobart Town, the following 
evening, about half-past 9 o’clock, he observed a few faint Auroral 
coruscations in the south; and that the aborigines reported the 
occurrence from 8 to 9 on the same evening of an Aurora of unusual 
brilliancy, displaying long shoots of red, blue, and green light, 
accompanied at intervals with a crackling noise, which they exem- 
plified by snapping the fingers repeatedly. 
Mr. Milligan also read a portion of a paper on the raised Beaches 
of Tasmania, and the adjoining islands and coasts, illustrated with 
N 
