199 Proceedings, &c.y for 18S7. 



months. Mr. Wilson has been having his yacht repaired, and 

 will continue his work in this field in the ensuing vacation. 



A large number of animal specimens liave been obtained, and 

 will be exhibited at the general Conversazione. Great care has 

 been exercised in preserving them in such a condition that they 

 shall be fit for histological as well as for zoological examination. 

 Several interesting lunicates, annelids, and alcyonatians have been 

 taken. Mr. Wilson has recorded Amphioxus from the South 

 Channel, and Mr. Lucas is engaged on a careful comparison of 

 this indigenous specimen with the European form. Trigonia has 

 been found in Laverton Bay. 



Some of the number of our active workers took part in the 

 King's Island Expedition of the Field Naturalists' Club. This to 

 a certain extent deferred work in the Bay. 



Your Committee have much pleasure in announcing that records 

 of the work done previously on the sponges by Mr, Wilson wdll 

 pass through their hands, Mr. Wilson having forwarded to 

 the University Biological School, through your Committee, the 

 whole of his fine and well-preserved collection. 



The Committee is in communication with several eminent 

 specialists in England and in the colonies, in order to secure their 

 services in the identification of species. 



In reviewing the work done, the Committee would point out 

 that the preliminary arrangement of necessity involved much care 

 and time, but they trust that the lines on which the survey has 

 been inaugurated are broad and scientific, and that the results 

 obtained will, in consequence, be easily classified, and of more than 

 local value. It is, of course, during the summer vacation that 

 most of the members of your Committee are more free from 

 professional engagements, and we hope to be able to devote much 

 more time accordingly to the survey, with which the Royal Society 

 have entrusted us. 



Signed on behalf of the Committee, 



A. H. S. LUCAS, 



2Wi November, 1887. " IIo7i. Sec. 



The collections of specimens of Sponges dredged in the inner 

 waters of Port Phillip, by Mr. J. Bracebridge Wilson, M.A. ; of 

 Victorian Forms of Sponge Skeletons, and of Victorian Crustacea 

 and Echinodermata, by Mr. A. H. S. Lucas, M.A., B.Sc, formed a 

 prominent and interesting portion (No. 21 in list) of the objects 

 exhibited in the large hall of the Athenaeum at the Conversazione 

 on the 9th December. 



