ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 7 
The occurrence of gold in some serpentine rocks, which also con- 
tain veins of asbestos, near Gundagai, was communicated to the 
Society at one of the monthly meetings last session by Mr. Wilkin- 
son, who attaches much importance to the discovery as being likely 
to lead to the finding of workable gold deposits in other localities 
where the auriferous drifts have evidently been derived from the 
disintegration of serpentine rocks. Mr. Wilkinson also brought 
under the notice of the Society the occurrence of some remarkable 
boulders of shale in the Hawkesbury formation. These boulders, 
from their angular shape and the singular manner in which they 
have been embedded in irregular and scattered heaps in the sand- 
stone, suggest that their mode of disposition has been partly due to 
glacial action. Mr. W. J. Stephen, M.A., recently communicated 
to the Linnzan Society of this Colony the result of similar obser- 
vations made by him when examining the Hawkesbury rocks in the 
southern district, thus supporting Mr. Wilkinson’s views. I may 
add that the fossil plants which occur in the shale beds are in an 
exceptionally good state of preservation. It is also gratifying to 
me to be able to state that the late Rev. W. B. Clarke’s valuable 
geological map will be shortly published by the Department of 
Mines. 
In astronomical matters the year now closed has not been 
marked by any great or startling event ; but steady work has been 
done in the Colony by our astronomer, Mr. H. C. Russell, B.A., 
F.R.A.S., and by Mr. J. Tebbutt, F.R.A.S., in determining star 
places, measuring double stars, and observations of the planets and 
the two comets which have appeared ; the last one, of unusual 
brilliance, was almost concealed by clouds, and its great tail, some 
forty degrees long, excited a lively curiosity, which could not be 
gratified because of the impossibility of seeing the nucleus. One 
event has transpired in connection with astronomy since last we 
met which takes us back to the birth of our Society, for the Parra- 
matta Observatory was founded at the same time, and there can, 
I think, be little doubt that it was the presence amongst the 
founders of a Governor known to be a friend of science which in- 
duced them to found the Society. Sir Thomas Macdougall Brisbane 
