Natural-History Collectors. 4395 



that it was proposed that the usual annual dinner should take place, of which due 

 notice would be given to the Members. 



Election of Members. 



The Chairman then announced that the following gentlemen had been unanimously 

 elected Honorary Members : — Colonel Sabine, F.K.S., President of the British Asso- 

 ciation ; Thomas Bell, Esq., F.E.S., President of the Linnean Society; Sir William 

 Jackson Hooker, K.H., &c, Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew ; Edward 

 Newman, Esq., President of the Entomological Society; J. O. Westwood, Esq., Ex- 

 President of the Entomological Society ; Joshua Alder, Esq. ; and — Martin, Esq., 

 Dublin, Ordinary Member. 



The session was then adjourned to November. 



Proceedings of Natural- History Collectors in Foreign Countries. 



Mr. A. R. Wallace. — " Singapore, May 9, 1854. — As I have no 

 doubt that my entomological friends will be glad to hear that I have 

 arrived safe, and have commenced work, I will give you a short ac- 

 count of my progress up to this time. 



" 1 landed at Singapore on the 20th of April, after a 46 days' pas- 

 sage from England without any incident out of the common. For a 

 week I was obliged to remain in the town at an hotel, not finding it 

 easy to obtain any residence or lodging in the country. During this 

 time I examined the suburbs, and soon came to the conclusion that it 

 was impossible to do anything there in the way of insects, for the 

 virgin forests have been entirely cleared away for four or five miles 

 round (scarcely a tree being left), and plantations of nutmeg and 

 Oreca palm have been formed. These are intersected by straight and 

 dusty roads ; and waste places are covered with a vegetation of shrubby 

 Melastonias, which do not seem attractive to insects. A few species 

 of Terias, Cethosia, Danais and Euploea, with some obscure Satyridae, 

 are the only butterflies seen, while two or three lamellicorn beetles on 

 the Acacia trees were the only Coleoptera that I could meet with. 



" At length, however, I obtained permission to reside a few weeks 

 at a Roman Catholic mission near the centre of the island, from 

 which place, called ' Bakit Tima,' I now write. Here portions of the 

 forest, which originally covered the whole island, and which is rapidly 

 disappearing, still exists, and it is in them that 1 find my only good 

 hunting-grounds. 



