MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. 503 
Dixon. P.S.—Zinc and copper are entirely absent.” Some, if not all, 
the dead timber now standing along the shore of the lake was killed by 
the great flood of 1871. The opinion of the present residents is that all 
the trees were killed then, but Sir Thomas Mitchell, in his account of a 
visit to the lake in 1828, says, “It was a sheet of water 17 miles in 
length, and seven in breadth. The water is slightly brackish, but quite 
fit for use, and the lake was surrounded by dead trees, measuring about 
two feet in diameter, which also extended into it until wholly covered 
by the water. An old native told us she remembered when the whole 
was a forest, a statement supported by the dead trees in its bed.” And 
Mr. John King, who from 1834 to 1841 resided with his father at 
Gidleigh, says that ‘‘in 1840 dead trees were still standing on the 
margin of the lake;’ and it seems probable that some of the dead trees 
seen by Sir Thomas Mitchell are still standing, although the gum which 
grows there appears to rot away rapidly. I saw one tree 4 feet in 
diameter, just inside the 1871 line, partly dead, but evidently depending 
for its little remaining life on some surface roots that ran uphill. With 
reference to the age of these dead trees, I may mention that a number of 
young gum trees have come up within the 1871 line, and are evidently 
growing very fast. The largest of four, standing near the jetty, 
measures 23 inches round 3 feet from the ground, and is something like 
25 feet high, or about half the height of the older trees near it. I couid 
not ascertain how soon it appeared after the 1871 flood, but the opinion 
of persons living there is that it is not more than eight years old, and 
from the fact that it is some 4 or 5 feet nearer the lake than the 1871 
line, it must, I think, have been at least three or four years after that 
flood before it began to grow. In reviewing the results of such investi- 
gations as I have brought before you this evening, one is impressed by 
the slowness of the changes going on around us, and the immense 
periods over which they extend, compared with which the span of 
human life sinks into insignificance. To the scientific worker it seems 
to say, “You must be patient in investigation, accurate in measurement, 
cautious in accepting results, content to stand one in a long series who 
for the good of humanity are striving to interpret the laws of nature.” 
OTAGO INSTITUTE. 
Dunedin, 9th June, 1885,—Prof. J. H. Scott, President, in the 
chair, 
Mr. G. M. Thomson moved the following resolution upon a matter 
of which he thought the Institute should take some cognizance :—“ That 
this Society draw the attention of the Government to the recent whole- 
sale deportation of Tuatara lizards which has taken place from this 
colony, and that steps be taken to preserve these animals in the 
localities in which they occur.” These lizards were an extremely 
interesting zoological type, and presumably at one time were common, 
as their bones have been frequently found along with those of the moa. 
Now they were confined to a few islands lying off the East Coast of the 
North Island, and were not very abundant there. Very recently a 
shipment had been sent home by a Dunedin dealer of something like 
120 living specimens, and if these commanded a good price, no doubt 
