Proceedings. 17? 



of the head darker. The hellij of a lighter shade, without long hairs. 

 Ears broad and bare. Four toes on the forefeet, the two middle ones 

 longest, with rudimentary thumb ; the fore legs short. Five claws on the 

 hind feet, the three middle toes longest. Dental formula ; rodent teeth 

 2-2, molar 4-4, ^vith a long interval between. Tongue very large. Not 

 marsupial. The entrance to the meatus uriuarius, Src. curiously 

 defended and half concealed by a thin pendent flap or purse-like 

 appendage covered with short hairs. The tail four-sided, very sparingly 

 clothed ivith short hair, and compressed laterally at the tip, so as to form 

 a slightly flattened fa7i -like termination. 



L. Nathan, Esq,, of London, sent per Rattler, for the Society's 

 Gardens, a case of choice exotic plants, of which few have survived 

 the voyage. 



Mr. Moses has placed on the reservoir in the Society's Gardens a 

 canoe, with outrigger and paddles, picied up by his ship Prince 

 Regent, in latitude south 1° 25', and in longitude east 171° 45', 

 where it was computed to be 200 miles from land. There was on 

 board the canoe when found three inhabitants of Henderville's 

 Island, whence they had been drifted in a gale ; a fact having an 

 obvious bearing upon the mode by which the Oceanic Islands have 

 been originally peopled. 



E. S. P. Bedford, Esq., presented to the Library 3 volumes on 

 Natural History, by Swainson. 



Mr. Westcott presented 8 volumes of Proceedings of Zoological 

 Society of London. 



Woodville's Medical Botany, 4 vols. 4to., presented by Mr, 

 Milligan. 



Mr. Turnbull, of New Norfolk, sent for examination a specimen 

 of native sulphate of magnesia, crystalized, in an aggregated acicular 

 mass, from caverns in the clay rocks in the neighbourhood of the 

 Dromedary Mountain. 



Specimens of superior pottery-ware, manufactured in Hobart 

 Town, of clay from the Domain and from Richmond, were exhibited. 



A series of fossil shells, from tertiary and post-tertiary deposits in 

 the islands of Bass's Straits, and on the northern and western coasts 

 of Tasmania, were submitted by Mr. Milligan. The Secretary read 

 extracts from a letter of R. C, Gunn, Esq., mentioning the occurrence 

 of a fossil Haliotis, species' of Cidaris, &c. in a recent formation 

 near Melbourne, about 200 feet above the present level of the sea. 

 The Secretary also placed before the meeting some delicate petrifac- 



