XI 



expended in the boring. This transaction added considerably to the cost of the 

 undertaking, for the purchase had to be made within very narrow Hmits of time, 

 when the price of carbonadoes was quite exceptionally high, and at the time of the 

 sale it had fallen greatly. The Committee bought 93^ carats at £6 5s. per carat, 

 the residue was sold in April, 1897, at only £3 15s. per carat, so that allowing for 

 loss in usage (which had been from the first estimated as about £100) and the agent's 

 commission, only £284 lOs. was received against £582 Os. 7d. expended. 



The following balance sheet was presented to and accepted by the Committee at a 

 Meeting held on June 29, 1897, from which it will be seen that the total cost of the 

 Expedition amounted to £1,064 3^.-. 10c?. 



BALANCE SHEET. 



Receipts. 



Grants : — 



Government Grant 250 



800 



Council Fund 20 



Royal Society Grant 150 



British Association Grant ... 1000 



„ ... 40 



Loans : — 



Royal Society 550 



W. W. Watts 50 





£ s. 



d. 



Sale Carbonadoes 



. 284 10 







Less commission . 



. 7 2 



3 



277 7 9 



3,147 7 9 



Expenditure. 



£ s. d. 



Expenditixre 1,341 11 7 



Loan repaid, Royal Society . . . 550 



W. W. Watts ... 50 

 British Association Grant not 



drawn 40 



Balance 



165 16 2 



2,147 7 9 



The experience gained in this attempt proved that, as some of us had feared from 

 the first, England was too distant to be a base for the undertaking, and we expressed 

 this opinion unofficially to our friends in New South Wales. They were the more 

 prompt to accept the suggestion, because their machinery had been defeated by the 

 peculiarities of the reef rock. It would have cut through sandstone, or even basalt, 

 as an auger through a piece of wood, but an entirely new problem had been afforded 

 by material which varied constantly from incoherent to comparatively hard. So 

 repulse made them all the more determined to succeed, and the result was the 

 despatch of the Second. Expedition in 1897, the story of which, from the first 

 beginning to its successful conclusion in attaining a depth of 698 feet, is told by 



h 2 



