ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 5 



one of the Northern Maldives ; that the Admiralty will provide a 

 ship, and that everything seems in train for settling matters at 

 the forthcoming meeting of the Association at Oxford. The 

 results cannot fail to be of the deepest interest, may be of great 

 importance, and in any case will be creditable to the Colony of 

 New South Wales for the share which it is taking in the work. 



NAMING SOME PART OF THE BLUE MOUNTAINS AFTER DARWIN. 



The mention of the name of Darwin leads me to commend the 

 suggestion that some noteworthy feature in the mountains which 

 he visited, should bear his name. I have had a talk with the Hon. 

 P. G. King, m.l.c, a shipmate of Darwin in the Beagle, and who 

 rode with him as far as Penrith, and Mr. King has promised to 

 help in the matter. It must be some feature worthy of the name, 

 and it is not easy to find such now. Still, perhaps, someone may 

 make a suggestion — preferably of some place which Darwin actu- 

 ally visited or saw, for Port Darwin he never was near. 



POISON OF THE PLATYPUS. 



The action of the secretion of the gland connected with the spur 

 of the Ornithorhynchus, or platypus, offers a tempting subject for 

 investigation, and unless the research be undertaken before long 

 it will not be an easy if indeed a possible matter, for the animals 

 are getting scarcer, and at all times, even if plentiful, are not easy 

 to get at under circumstances permitting a satisfactory examina- 

 tion of the effects of the poison. The poisonous action of the 

 secretion has been alternately asserted and denied, but I have no 

 doubt whatever that it is, at least at certain seasons, a powerful 

 poison. I have from time to time made enquiry, and have also 

 advertised for information, and I have two good accounts from very 

 intelligent hunters of the animal, in widely separated parts of the 

 Colony, which coincide perfectly, so that I have no doubt myself 

 that they accurately represent the main features of the action of 

 the poison in dogs and as observable by laymen. 



One account shows that the males fight very fiercely while in 

 the water during the pairing season, mostly applying themselves to 



