84 



A nniversary Meeting. 



[Nov. 30, 



observations of the thickness of the aerial current which causes our 

 winds, and of the peculiarities of the currents above it in the upper 

 strata of the atmosphere. The military authorities have offered their 

 co-operation in the most cordial manner; but the attention of an 

 aeronaut is often so much engrossed by the operations necessary for 

 working his balloon, that he has but little leisure for taking systematic 

 records. Nevertheless, observations of considerable interest have 

 already been obtained, relating especially to the velocity and direction of 

 the upper air currents ; and there can be no doubt that a continuance of 

 such observations affords the best prospect at present open to us of add- 

 ing to the very scanty knowledge which we possess of the movements of 

 the atmosphere, even at a moderate height above the earth's surface. 



Among the various duties which the President of the Royal 

 Society is called upon to fulfil there are those of a Trustee of the 

 British Museum ; and, as an operation of great importance to Science, 

 namely the removal of the natural history collections to the new build- 

 ing at South Kensington, is now going on, the Fellows may be in- 

 terested to hear what progress has been made in the work. 



The plans for the new building were approved as long ago as 

 April, 1868 ; but the works were not commenced until the early part 

 of 1873. Their progress was retarded by difficulties in the supply of 

 the terra cotta with which the building is faced within and without, 

 and in which the mouldings of arches and other ornamental features 

 are executed. 



The building was finally handed over to the Trustees in the month 

 of June of the present year. It contains cases for three only of the 

 Departments for which it is intended, namely, Mineralogy, Geology, 

 and Botany ; the necessary funds for the Zoological Department not 

 having been yet voted. As the latter collections are equal in bulk to 

 the other three collectively, it follows that half only of the new building 

 can at present be actually occupied The removal of the collections 

 for which cases had been provided, commenced in the last week of 

 July, and was virtually completed by the end of September. 



Geology, which was very inadequately displayed in the old build- 

 ing, is now more commodiously accommodated than heretofore. It 

 occupies a gallery 280 feet in length by 52 in breadth, forming 

 the ground floor of the east wing of the new museum, together with 

 eight other galleries covering an area of 200 X 170 feet at the back, 

 and admirably adapted for the exhibition of the specimens. One 

 of these galleries will be devoted to the illustration of stratification. 



The principal part of the minerals has been moved and replaced 

 in the cases in which they were arranged in the old building. This 

 collection now occupies the first floor of the east " wing of the new 

 museum, and the space devoted to it is 280 x 50 feet in area. It is 

 already arranged for exhibition. 



