Mr. Todd, C.M.G., suggested that it would be advisable first 

 of all to communicate with the Royal Societies of the neigh- 

 bouring colonies, and to ask to be furnished with a copy of the 

 memorial adopted by them when they took similar steps. 



After a short discussion the matter was postponed. 



The 1 1 on". Seceetabt referred to the fact that forms had 

 been circulated in various parts of the country, to be filled up 

 by the recipients, the information which was sought to be 

 elicited having reference to the sinking of wells and other 

 borings in the colony. He had received a reply from Mr. ~W. 

 Fowler, of Taroo, Kulpara, furnishing the required records 

 concerning three of these wells. Mr. Fowler gave their levels 

 above the sea. The depths of the wells were 84, 145, and 1G5 

 feet respectively. The shafts all penetrated strata of the 

 same character, and were situated about one mile or one and a 

 half miles from the shores of the Grulf. Brackish water was 

 struck at about the sea-level in each case, but the fluid was not 

 too brackish for stock to use. Mr. Fowler promised to supply 

 any further information that lay in his power, and to present 

 the Society with a specimen of some fossils of mangrove roots 

 found in the sinking of one of the shafts. These fossils were 

 similar to those found some time ago at Port Wakefield. Mr. 

 Fowler described the strata of sand penetrated, and expressed 

 a belief that they rested upon a clay slate. 



The following paper was read: — "Notes on the Comet of 

 February, 1880." By Mr. C. Todd, C.M.G-. (See p. 19). 



An interesting discussion upon what is known of, and what 

 has been speculated concerning comets, followed. Attention 

 was particularly drawn by Mr. Ingleby, Q.C., and other 

 speakers, to the remarkable circumstance that the recent comet 

 did not actually set below the horizon, but faded into blank- 

 ness as the night advanced, while its tail was still many 

 degrees above the horizon, and questions were raised as to 

 whether the luminosity of comets was self-existent, and 

 internal, or whether it was merely a received and reflected 

 light. Professor Tmdall's theory of a body or vapour of great 

 tenuity, made luminous by the operations of actinic rays of 

 light from some light-giving centre, and afterwards being 

 destroyed by the heat rays, was referred to, but Mr. Todd con- 

 sidered that this theory did not satisfactorily account for the 

 curvature of the tail and many other peculiarities observable 

 in comets. His opinion as to the nature of their nebulous 

 light was that it consisted partly of internal and partly of 

 received or absorbed light. Spectrum analysis proved that the 

 nucleus of comets possessed self-luminous vapours, but no 

 experiments with the spectrum had yet been carried out with 

 the tail of anv comet. 



