COUNCIL EOU 1880 . 
9 
effect in reducing the average amount received at the gate for 
admission money. This year the gate-money amounts to 
£272. 8s. 6d., as against £368. 13s. 6d. of the previous year. 
In the autumn of last year, Dr. Pnrves, the keeper of the 
Museum, resigned his office, having been appointed one of the 
staff on the Government Survey in Belgium. 
Your Council at once took steps to supply his place, and after 
full enquiry and investigation into the testimonials of the 
gentlemen who sought the office, they elected Mr. Walter 
Keeping, M.A., of the IJniversity of Cambridge, to the vacant 
office., Mr. Keeping’s testimonials were of the highest order. 
He took a first class in the Scientific Tripos in the IJniversity, 
and for some time was an officer in the Cambridge Museum, 
where he acquired a large and extensive experience in the ar¬ 
rangement and naming of fossils. He asked, however, a larger 
salary than had been allowed to his predecessor. The Council felt 
bound to consider the wishes of our great benefactor, Mr. Heed, 
whose colleague in the arrangement of the Geological Museum 
the new Keeper would become, and at his instance and special 
request the following arrangement was made. The salary of 
the new Keeper was fixed at £200 a year, the ordinary salary, 
but the Council determined that as soon as the tenant vacated 
St. Mary’s Lodge, it should be restored to the pin^pose for 
which it was formerly used and become the residence of the new 
Keeper of the Museum ; and that the garden now attached to the 
house should be added to the Museum grounds, which will effect 
a great improvement. These terms Mr. Keeping accepted. The 
Council directed a notice to quit to be served on the tenant, 
and the house will be vacated on Lady Day next, when Mr. 
Keeping will at once enter upon his residence. In the mean¬ 
time, the Council undertook to pay Mr. Keeping at the rate of 
£40 a year for house-rent until the 6th April. 
It is true that a small loss of income will accrne from this 
arrangement, but the Council felt that this was the best course 
to adopt under the circumstances, as for reasons which need not 
be further explained, the residence of the chief officer of the 
Museum on the Society’s premises was greatly needed, and will be 
of great benefit to the Society. In the view of the ensuing meeting 
