226 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE. 



readable account of the contents of the various rooms, avoid- 

 ing technicahties, and dweUing particularly on the sections in 

 which the Museum collections are especially noteworthy. 



A summary of the work done in the Museum during the 

 past year is appended to this Report. 



The full list of donations received during the year is 

 appended, but special mention must be made of the following : 

 The Rev. W. J. Wingate, of Bishop Auckland, has offered 

 to the Society his large collection of local Diptera; he has 

 arranged these in glass -topped boxes purposely for the 

 Museum, and they will shortly be placed in the library. 

 Mr. Wingate hopes that the help derived from easy reference 

 to this collection will encourage some other local naturalists 

 to take up the study of this much neglected group of insects. 

 Dr. Geo. Abbott has presented specimens and photographs 

 of Magnesian Limestone concretions, and has arranged a 

 series in one of the petrology cases to illustrate his theory as 

 to the relations of the different forms. A selection of objects 

 from the collections of the late J. F. Spence, given by Miss 

 Spence, includes a good set of the Cheviot rocks; and Mr. J. 

 J. Oxley has given an interesting set of specimens illustrating 

 the remarkable mineral wealth of Newfoundland. Mrs. 

 Punshon, of Ingleby House, Northallerton, has presented 

 the Society with two small portraits, handsomely framed — one 

 a pencil drawing, by Edward Train, of John Hancock as a 

 young man, the other an oil portrait of the late Rev. Geo. 

 Cooper Abbs. A number of works on natural history be- 

 queathed by the late Dr. Thos. Pigg, and including several of 

 considerable value, have been added to the library; and a 

 set of Burmese butterflies, amongst them examples of several 

 rare species, have been presented by Col. Adamson. Mr. R. 

 C. Clephan has given a most interesting set of diagrams 

 illustrative of Egyptian archaeology ; these consist of accurate 

 copies of inscriptions and frescoes, restorations of temples, 

 &c., and form a valuable addition to the ethnology collection, 

 but they have not yet been put on exhibition for lack of 

 means for properly protecting them. 



