Ixviii President's Address 



Christie, on that most important practical subject, " The 

 Making Storage Reservoirs for Water." At the same Meeting, 

 the Surveyor-General, Mr Ligar, one of our Vice-Presidents, 

 gave a most interesting description of the newest and richest 

 of our gold-fields at Wood's Point, which he had just visited ; 

 and entering at some length upon the vexed question of 

 whether, as a general rule (omitting small exceptions or 

 little rich patches or spurs), the gold-reefs of the Colony 

 were richer near the surface or at greater depths, he ven- 

 tured the suggestion that as the richest known reefs, those 

 at Wood's Point, were 4,000 to 5,000 feet above the sea, 

 while Ballarat for instance was only 1,000 feet, and various 

 less rich places still lower, that it seemed as if the reefs were 

 rich in proportion to then height above the sea. These 

 observations of Mr. Ligar on a new and remarkable locality, 

 tend, together with a great body of evidence taken by the 

 last Gold-fields Commission, to support Sir Roderick Mur- 

 chison's original views on this point, which always seemed 

 to me to be borne out by this country generally. 



The most glorious work of the Royal Society has been 

 brought to a formal termination during the past year, by 

 the presentation at our Meeting in August last of the " Final 

 Report of the Exploration Committee of the Royal Society 

 of Victoria." This great undertaking, of exploring a route 

 from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria through the 

 central area of the Australian Continent, was set in motion 

 by the anonymous donation by a member of our Society, 

 Ambrose Kyte, Esq., of £1,000, on condition of our Explora- 

 tion Committee raising £2,000 more, by public subscription, 

 within a year. The condition was fulfilled, and with this 

 £3,000 of private money in hand, the Government of -the 

 Colony was asked for £6,000 in addition, which, with that 

 enlightened liberality which has always distinguished the 

 Victorian Parliament towards scientific objects, was voted 



