176 Proceedings. 



flf the following ihvee classes iu the communitj', at ages not exceeding 

 18, were laid upon the table ; namely, — 



Children of the higher classes in the community. 



• free persons (working class). 



convicts (Orphan School). 



The Secretary read a paper communicated by William Porden 

 Kay, Esq., Director of Public Works, on the construction and cost 

 of the Causeway and Bridge across the Derwent at Bridgewater. 



His Excellency Sir W. Denison read a paper on the manufacture 

 of marketable potash, from the ashes of timber burnt ofif in the 

 process of clearing new land for the plough, in Tasmania. 



12th December, 1849. — Monthly meeting ; Joseph Hone, Esq., 

 the senior member of council present, in the chair. 



The following gentlemen were ballotted for and elected Fellows : — 

 Thomas J. Knight, Esq., Hobart Town. 

 Joseph White, Esq. „ 



Lieutenant Eobert Lynd, Barrack-master, Auckland, New 

 Zealand. 



Henry D'Arch. Esq., presented for the Museum 48 coins and 

 medals of ancient Greece and Rome, from the collection of Captain 

 W. H. Smyth, R.N., F.R S., author of Travels in the Sicilies, &cc. 



Major Walch presented 80 coins and medals of various ages and 

 countries. 



J. S. Hampton, Esq., presented two specimens of roughly polished 

 marble, from the crinoidal limestone at Maria Island. 



Mrs. Kerr sent a comb as originally worn by the inhabitants of the 

 Feejee Islands. 



Samuel Moses, Esq., presented shells from the South Sea Islands ; 

 a section of the stem of a Xanthorrhcea, and of the trunk of a small 

 Acacia, labelled " raspberry jamwood,' from Western Australia. 



J. E. Bicheno, Esq., presented (having been sent by H. Anstey, 

 Esq., of Anstey Barton), the skin of a small rodent, about the size of a 

 large mole ; together with the skin of the smaller cuckoo of Tasmania, 

 ■Cuculus inornatus (Vig. and Horsf.) 



The rodent sent hy Mr. Bicheno measured, from the tip of the snout 

 to extremity of tail, lOf inches; the tail alone measured 4 J inches. 

 Its body is closely covered with a fine short fur of a light slate colour, 

 tipped ivith brownish-white, interspersed loith fine silky hairs of brownish 

 black one inch in length, tipj^ed with white about J inch. The crojvn 



