for the year 1861. xxi 



early settlers only a quarter of a century before, was pre- 

 sented to me, and I fear, from official reports which have 

 come under my notice, that in other districts, despite all the 

 efforts that the neAvly-constituted Board for the Protection 

 of the Aborigines can make, this unfortunate race is fast 

 becoming extinct. 



Re verting to papers of a more exclusively scientific cha- 

 racter laid before the Society, I may cite (passing over some 

 relative to branches of mathematics too abstruse to be 

 adverted to on such an occasion as the present) a brief but 

 interesting dissertation by Mr. Ellery, " On the Application 

 of Galvanic Electricrty to Practical Astronomy ;" and in 

 natural history, a description of a new species of the fresh 

 water polyzoa, " Plumitella Aplinii," by Mr. McGillivray ; 

 " Observations on the Nidiflcation of certain Birds," and on 

 Victorian Ornithology generally, by Mr. Dobree. A very able 

 paper by Dr. Coates, illustrated by Dr. Ralph, on a remark- 

 able Deposit of Fossil Diatomacese, discovered in making the 

 railway at South Yarra ; an instructive account of micro- 

 scopical researches into the adulteration of articles of food, by 

 the former learned gentleman ; and last, though not least in 

 importance, a series of observations, contributed by the Rev 

 W. B. Clarke, of Sydney, and Professor M'Coy, of the Mel- 

 bourne University, in support of their respective views as to 

 the " Age of the Australian Coal-fields." 



Possibly, at first sight, a controversy of this sort may seem 

 to offer little attraction to those who have not had either 

 time or perhaps inclination to pay much attention to geo- 

 logical studies, but, independently of its commercial import- 

 ance as bearing on the probable value, extent, and accessi- 

 bility of the supply of indigenous coal, it so happens that 

 the points in dispute are of the deepest interest in connection 

 with the history of the primaeval world, and the inspired 

 record of the Creation. 



