No. 4.— 1848.] 



APPENDIX. 



109 



the extending utility of the body, and a sure sign that the public 

 are not indifferent to its efforts. 



Papers. 



"It would not have been too much to have anticipated serious 

 obstacles to the Society's advancement, from the recent untoward 

 events which have thrown a gloom over the prospect of all 

 Colonial undertakings ; nor has the Society altogether escaped 

 the ill-effects of the depression of the times, as the much smaller 

 number of original communications read this year will prove ; 

 yet even here your Committee can state with pleasure that these 

 communications have mostly been received from new sources, and 

 it is confidently hoped that renewed prosperity will restore 

 sufficient leisure to the Society's old contributors to enable them 

 to enjoy the pursuit of literature and again appear in the pages 

 of the J ournal. 



Museum. 



"Another source of congratulation is the formation of a Museum 

 for the reception of objects illustrative of the Natural History, 

 the Antiquities, and the Industrial Progress of the Colony. The 

 Government has liberally given the Minerals and Geological 

 Specimens collected by Dr. Rudolph Gygax in the Sabaragamuwa 

 district (about 1,200 specimens), which form the most complete 

 collection which has been made in Ceylon. Other contributions 

 from private individuals have been made in the several departments 

 of Conchology, Entomology, Ornothology, Antiquities, &c, 

 and many promises of support have been given. The accession 

 to your list of Members of many gentlemen resident at outstations 

 will offer peculiar facilities tor promoting the objects of the 

 Museum, and to those Members your Committee would beg to 

 suggest that no opportunity be lost of forwarding subjects adapted 

 to such a collection, however trivial they may appear to be. 

 Printed instructions for the preservation of objects of Natural 

 History have been already freely distributed, in several instances 

 with success, and it is hoped that they will enable many others to 

 forward specimens who otherwise,, though willing, might have been 

 unable to do so, 



k t 



