ICC Proceedings. 



from the root to the first branch, 220 feet, and the top measures 64— in all 284 

 feet, without including the small top, decayed and gone, which would carry it 

 much beyond 300 feet. The circumference at the base is 36 feet, and at the 

 first branch 12 feet, giving an average of 24 feet. This would allow for the 

 solid bole 10,120 feet of timber, without including any of the branches. 

 Altogether, as green timber, it must have weighed more than 400 tons. The 

 oak that gave the most timber was the Gelonosoak, in Monmouthshire, which, 

 with its branches, turned out 2426 feet, but the body alone only 450 feet. 

 • • • •. — Believe me, yours very truly, 



•' Thomas J. Ewing, 

 " Joseph Milligan, Esq." 



His Excellency the President mentioned his having strongly 

 recommended to the Right Hon. the Secretary of State for the 

 Colonies, and to the Lord Commissioners of the Admiralty, the timber 

 of our Blue Gum {Eucalyptus (jlohulus). Plank can be obtained from 

 it in lengths surpassing those of any other timber-tree ; and it may be 

 sent home and sold at Sd. per foot, while oak plank (to which it is 

 not inferior in quality) of the largest obtainable lengths costs 2s. Qd. 

 per foot. 



The Secretary reported having visited and examined the Coal 

 Seams on the East Coast referred to at last meeting in a note from 

 Mr. Lyne. At least four additional seams have been discovered, 

 alternating with which are beds of shale, bluish slate, and clay schist, 

 with several seams of clay iron-stone, varying from 3 to 11 inches in 

 thickness, and rich in impressions of ferns, strap-shaped leaves, jointed 

 stems resembling calamites, &c. Specimens of these fossils on the 

 table. 



The Secretary read the following note from the Rev. T. J. 



Ewing : — 



" Wednesday Morning. 



" My Dear Sir,— I am much obliged for the Report of the Royal Society. 

 1 see that towards the end we are exhorted to throw our individual facts into a 

 common centre. I therefore take this opportunity of mentioning that, oti 

 Saturday, 24th March, I saw a large flock of one of our rarest birds — namely, 

 the Acanthylis caudacuta, or Spine-tailed Swift. It is beautifully figured by 

 Swainson, in his second series of Zoological Illustrations, under the name of 

 Chcetura macroptera. Gould also has given us an excellent plate. It is about 

 twice the size of the English swift, and its flight is literally swift as an arrow ; 

 and it was this circumstance which first attracted my attention. It resembled 

 most that of one of the Procelldridoe, called by sailors the Whale Bird, seen in 

 great numbers between this and the Cape of Good Hope. This flock, con- 

 sisting of about two hundred, continued playing over New Town for about 

 twoliours, — at one time soaring to an immense height without any apparent 

 motion of the wing, and the next minute almost brushing your face in their 

 rapid whirls. When thus low they used their wings very quickly. 



