for the year 1861. xxxi 



has, with his wonted personal activity, penetrated thrice 

 during the last few months the still unexplored fastnesses of 

 Oipps Land, visiting, on the first occasion, the unknown 

 region about Cape Howe, whence he enriched the Australian 

 flora with several new species, and brought back many not 

 hitherto known to exist within the limits of Victoria ; and 

 subsequently ascending the loftiest interior ranges of the 

 Alps, including Mount Baw-Baw and Mount Useful, within 

 whose humid and sheltered recesses, beneath forests of Cun- 

 ningham's beech, which reminded him of Europe, he was 

 rewarded by the discovery of the first Australian represen- 

 tative of one of the favourite wild fruits of our youth, the 

 bilberry. 



Another of our scientific associates, Professor Neumayer, 

 has since my former address published his first report of the 

 magnetical and meteorological observations made under his 

 superintendance at the Flagstaff-hill Observatory, Melbourne, 

 as well as at various stations throughout the country. He 

 has likewise been actively engaged in carrying on investiga- 

 tions as to terrestrial magnetism over a wide area, and I 

 trust at no distant period we shall be put in possession of 

 his promised volume on the magnetic survey of the colony. 



The removal of the Magnetic Observatory from the Flag- 

 stag-hill to a spot where the instruments would be less 

 subject to disturbance from iron buildings and machinery 

 has always been a desideratum, and as the situation of the 

 Astronomical Observatory at Williamstown is daily becom- 

 ing, through the oscillation arising from the trains on the 

 adjacent railway, equally unsuitable for the purpose for which 

 it was designed, the board of visitors to these establishments, 

 constituted pursuant to a resolution of the Legislative 

 Assembly early last year, has, after full inquiry, recommended 

 the amalgamation of the two under one roof, and obtained 

 the approval of the Government for a site near the Botanic 



