268 Proceeding a. 



them. It would appear, tlievefore, that these concretions are not 

 caused by noxious and poisonous herbage peculiar to certain tracts of 

 land, and eaten as food by sheep as had been supposed, but that the 

 nucleus around which there is a continual accretion of thin laminae 

 is the result or residuum of imperfect action on the part of the 

 ruminative and digestive organs — a condition which may in all 

 probability be obviated or removed by the introduction of bitter and 

 aromatic plants ; such as parsley, thyme, chiccory, clover, &c., amongst 

 the few comparatively sapless indigenous grasses which constitute 

 the natural pasturage of Van Diemen's T^and. 



The Ecverend E. K. Ewing, of Launceston, forwarded a specimen 

 of curiously fluted and stalactite-looking Iron Pyrites from Mr. De 

 Little's Lime Quarry, near York Town, on the Tamar River. 



James Barnard, Esq., presented a fragment of calcareous spar, 

 seemingly detached from trap rock, with a specimen of micaceous 

 schist from the estate of B. Berthon, Esq., at the Cross Marsh ; also, 

 a fragment of fine Porphyry from the beach at Sandy Bay, having a 

 red jasper-like matrix thickly studded with serrated white points like 

 minute portions of shell or the points of shark's teeth. 



Mr. Worley presented a few shells from the Islands to the north 

 and eastward of Australia. 



Mr. Loughnan submitted for examination a sample of starch from 

 his manufactory in Campbell-street. 



Mr. A. M. Milligan, of Launceston, sent a few scarce coins — 

 gold, silver, and copper. 



Samuel Moses, Esq., presented an extensive assortment of coins 

 and medals of ancient and modern times in a good state of preserva- 

 tion ; also some beautifully crystallized specimens of blue and green 

 carbonates of copper fiom Adelaide. Mr. Moses submitted for 

 examination samples of a consignment of ores shipped as Copper 

 Ore fiom the islands called the Chickens, in the Bay of Wangari, 

 New Zealand: it was found to consist of Iron Pyrites, Iron Glance^ 

 and earthy matter. 



John Kerr, Esq., M.L.C., presented a purse of coins of ancient 

 Rome, and of England and Scotland, from the time of Elizabeth 

 and James downwards. 



W. Champ, Esq., forwarded from Port Arthur for the Museum, a 

 little spotted fish belonging to the genus Chironectes, preserved in 

 spirits, together with specimens of a small macrourous crustacean, 

 probably a Palcenwn. Mr. Champ writes thu: respecting the frog 



