CXXX1V 
Fishes : 
A Hapuku (Oligorus gizas), Mrs. Cearns. 
A Fish (probably a new genus), Mr. T, Stanfield. 
Crustazea : 
A Crab (Leptomithrax Spinulosus), Mr, ——— 
Mollusks : 
A Cluster of Oysters, adhering to portion of a bottle, from Spring 
Bay, Mr. J. McCluskey. 
Minerals : 
Sample of Quartz Conglomerate, from the summit of Cabbage Tree 
Hill,460ft. above sea level. 
Samples of Friable Quartz, Gold-bearing. Three samples, surface 
caps of lode, 400ft. above sea level, the Tasmanian mine, Beaconsfield, 
Mr. J. Davies. 
Coins : 
A collection of Coins and Tokens, the Hon. Wm. Crosby, M.L.C. 
A collection of Coins and Tokens, Mr. Easton. 
Framed copy of diploma presented to the Commissioners of Tasmanian 
Fisheries, by the International Fisheries Exhibition Commission, 
London, 1883, from the Chief Secretary (Hon. Adye Douglas). 
ABSENCE OF THE HON. SECRETARY, 
The CHAIRMAN announced with regret the inability of the Hon. 
Secretary (Dr. Agnew) to be in his place, it being still undesirable that 
he shculd encounter the nightair. The Curator (Mr. Morton) would 
officiate in his place. 
PAPERS. 
The following papers were read :— 
ICELAND AND THE ICELANDERS, 
By THE Rey. J. B. W. WooLLNOUGH. 
1. Iceland is an unfinished corner of the world. Heat force which, 
after forming the earth’s crust left it to cool, and become a home for 
man, is there still hard at work. Yet Iceland is byt just outside the 
Arctic circle. It is so close that at midsummer on a northern hilltop 
the sun never sets ; whilst the level of perpetual snow is but 3,000 feet, 
and the larger glaciers all bat reach the sea. In this close embrace of 
heat and cold lies one of the claims of Iceland to the interest of members 
of a scientific society. If further apology for this paper be needed, 
it may be found in the fact that in such a land a race of men has lived 
for more than one thousand years, never conauered, holding their own, 
not only against their neighbours, but also against nature at her worst; 
first discoverers and colonisers moreover of Greenland and of America: 
possessing arich literature; and at this day the very best educated 
people in the world. There is not throughout the island a child of ten 
who cannot, and who does not, read and enjoy the Sagas of his 
forefathers, 
Of the land first. A few miles from the seaboard, except where the 
poor pasture struggles up the valleys of the larger rivers, extends 
inland a desert covering nine-tenths of the whole island, being a tract 
much larger than all Ireland, and this desert is altogether desolate. 
In one part 4,000 square miles are covered with one vast white mass of 
lava mountains, glaciers, and snow-fields, Elsewhere, within it, are 
isolated black hills standing out of rugged lava fields, barren and 
waterless, or, it may be, swelling belts of voleanic sand, or again, 
bare earth ; but where soil is found it is waste, without even the tiny 
