for the year 1862. xliii 



12 cwt. — it strikes me it would be a pity to break it up 

 before it has been seen by the scientific world, while the 

 number of European savans is so far greater, that it would 

 seem almost selfish to seek to anticipate on these distant 

 shores their experiments upon it. 



The point has, I believe, been referred to the highest 

 authorities at home, whose views will, I am confident, be 

 cheerfully acquiesced in. 



Meanwhile this mysterious visitant of a bygone age from 

 an unknown world has been placed in front of the 

 quadrangle of the Melbourne University, where it well 

 deserves a visit from all who delight in the wonders of 

 nature. 



Since our last anniversary the labours of the Commissioners 

 appointed to prepare for the Inter-National Exhibition in 

 London, have been so far crowned with success, that a 

 preliminary display of industrial products, and other useful 

 or remarkable objects, has taken place in this city, and a 

 selection from it of what seemed likely to possess most 

 interest has been forwarded to England, where it will, I 

 trust, create an adequate impression of the resources of this 

 magnificent province. The Commissioners at the same time 

 rendered a scarcely less important service by procuring and 

 prefixing to their catalogue essays upon the statistics, 

 mineral products, climatology, vegetation, natural history, 

 and geology of Victoria. 



Of these prefatory desertations, contributed for the most 

 part by those who are the brightest ornaments of our Society, 

 I can scarcely speak in sufficiently high terms of commen- 

 dation ; nor must I forget the valuable reports of the juries, 

 particularly that on ' indigenous vegetable substances,' which 

 reflects the utmost credit on the jurors in that class, Dr. 

 Coates, and Messrs. Osborne and Ashley, who have opened 

 up in it new and unrecked fields of manufacturing industry. 



