190 



Anniversary Meeting. 



[Nov. 30, 



two series, corresponding to these two divisions, and a yearly volume 

 will appear in each series. It is hoped that this arrangement will be 

 conducive to an earlier publication, as the numeration of the pages in 

 the two series can go on independently. The individual papers will 

 also be issued separately, so that Fellows who prefer receiving them in 

 this way can have them as soon as they are printed. Moreover, the 

 issue of the ' Transactions ' in two series will enable Institutions 

 that are concerned with one only of the two groups of subjects, and 

 that are not on our list for free presentation, to purchase for their 

 libraries tbe series devoted to that group, instead of going to the 

 expense of procuring the whole ' Transactions.' 



I am happy to be able to announce that the publication of the 

 " Challenger " report is now nearly finished. Twenty-eight volumes, 

 some in two parts, have now been published, and these are all in the 

 Society's library. 



The Krakatoa Committee have now all but completed their labours. 

 A vast amount of information on the phenomena related to that 

 most remarkable volcanic explosion has been collected and digested, 

 different branches of the inquiry having been taken up by different 

 members of the Committee. An estimate has been made of the cost 

 of publication of the report, and the Council has decided that it 

 should be published as a separate work, and has voted the sum re- 

 quired for publication. The printing of the volume is now far 

 advanced, and in a very few weeks it will in all probability be in the 

 hands of the public. 



The reports of the observers of the total solar eclipse of August last 

 year are now coming in. From inquiries I have made I am in hopes 

 that they will all be in by the end of the year. It is obviously con- 

 venient that they should all be dealt with together, rather than 

 appear in a scattered form for the sake of a slightly earlier publica- 

 tion of those which happen to be ready first. 



I mentioned in my last address that with respect to this eclipse the 

 Council, acting in accordance with the recommendations of the Eclipse 

 Committee, had decided to confine themselves to an expedition to 

 Grenada, without attempting another to Benguela on the Western 

 Coast of Africa, which if sent out from this country would have been 

 a good deal more costly, and of which the success, judging by such 

 accounts of the climate of Benguela and its neighbourhood as we could 

 procure, seemed very doubtful. The Committee guaranteed, however, 

 £100 towards the expense of a small expedition from the Cape in case 

 Her Majesty's Astronomer at that place should be in a condition to 

 organise one. Sir W*. J. Hunt-Grubbe, the Admiral in command at 

 that station, was prepared to render every assistance in his power. 

 Ultimately, however, it was not found practicable to organise an 

 expedition from the Cape, and so the English observations of the 



