Vlll. ABSTRACT OF PROCEEDINGS. 



In it he referred to the loss which the Society has sus- 

 tained during the year in the deaths of Dr. W alter Spencer 

 and Mr. W. J. MacDonnell. Dr. Spencer had not only 

 given to the Society the benefit of his services as a member 

 of the Council, but had of late been prominent as president 

 of the New South Wales branch of the British Science Guild. 

 His efforts to secure larger playgrounds and reserves for 

 the school children had been crowned with success, and 

 his good work would live after him. Mr. MacDonnell 

 was esteemed as a patient and enthusiastic worker in 

 Astronomy. 



Reference was made to the recent Antarctic expeditions 

 under Captain Scott and Captain Amundsen and Lieutenant 

 Shirase, and a strong appeal was made to the members of 

 the Royal Society to support Dr. Douglas Mawson in the 

 Australasian expedition which he was now organizing with 

 so much energy. 



An outline was given of the preliminary scientific work 

 about to be undertaken in the Northern Territory, on behalf 

 of the Federal Government, by Professors Baldwin Spencer 

 and Gilruth of Melbourne University, Dr. Breinl of the 

 School of Tropical Medicine, and Dr. W. G. Woolnough as 

 Geologist. This expedition, which starts early in June and 

 which will be away for about eight or ten weeks, is intended 

 to be a prelude to a larger expedition in which every branch 

 of Science bearing on the problems of the Northern Terri- 

 tory will be represented. 



The special subject of the address was the geological 

 structure of the Australian Continent, especially in relation 

 of the evolution of its mountains, valleys, plains and 

 plateaus. A large scale relief map of Australia and Tas- 

 mania, specially prepared for illustrating these features by 

 Mr. W. K. McIntyre of Sydney University, was exhibited. 

 This was based on an accurate map kindly supplied by Mr. 

 H. E. O. Robinson. 



