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2. A letter from Mr. Hardy to Dr. Hector, respecting a brilliant 

 Meteor, observed in Auckland, on Sunday, tbe 16th October, was read. 

 This meteor shed a very bright light, and burst into fragments in the 

 S.E., with a faint report. 



Dr. Hector said it was desirable to obtain all the information pos- 

 sible from observers in different parts of the colony ; but the great point 

 to determine was, the direction in which it was first seen and where it 

 disappeared. 



Mr. W. Allen said he had observed, he presumed, the same phe- 

 nomenon, about half-past eight on the evening mentioned. Its first 

 appearance was as a great light, and after taking an almost perpendicular 

 shoot downwards in a southerly direction, it exploded, making a rushing 

 noise. The brilliancy did not seem to be distinguished by any particular 

 colour. 



3. "On certain species of AlgcB from the Chatham Islands," by 

 Professor Agardh. Communicated by Dr. F. von Mueller, T.R.S. 

 (See Trcmisactions.) This paper, on the subject of Algce collected at the 

 Chatham Islands by Mr. H. Travers, in 1866, described several new 

 species, and directed this branch of botany to the attention of New 

 Zealand collectors. 



4. " On a new genus of Whale," by Dr. J. E. Gray, F.E.S. (See 

 Transactions) This paper distinguished the Whale presented to the 

 Museum by Sir George Grey, and described by Dr. Knox, in Vol. II. 

 of the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute as Balcena marginata, 

 as forming the type of a new genus, for which he proposed the name of 

 Neohalmna. The wiiter stated that this pigmy whale, which does not 

 exceed 1 6 feet in length, is the true representative, in the Southern Seas, 

 of the great right whale of the Arctic Seas. 



Dr. Knox, in reply to a statement in the paper that the author 

 did not agree with him in considering this whale to be a finnei", 

 explained that the term " finner " is applied by the whalers to this kind 

 of whale, and that the true finner, or rorqual of the North, is known as 

 the trigger-fin or sulphur bottom. 



5. " On a new Fish of the group Coryphmnoides^'' by Dr. Hector, 

 F.R.S. (See Transactions.) The paper described a fish that was 

 caught ofi" Ward Island, Wellington Harbour, and brought to the author 

 by some fishermen, in August last, as a frost-fish ; but he discovered that 

 it belonged to the same groiip as the cod. As the specimen was in s^mits 

 a drawing was shown. The fish was about 21 inches long, 2 J inches 

 deep, and, viewed from the front, seemed to be no thicker than a good 



