76 
Minutes of 
languages : he thus succeeded in understanding almost alt 
those of the tribes scattered over the innumerable islands of 
the Pacific. Men of science will always have to regret that he 
never himself communicated the results of his inquiries upon this 
subject; for he was in hopes of demonstrating by the connec¬ 
tion of these different languages, and by the phrenological 
observations collected in his last voyage, that all this part oi 
the world had been peopled by a movement of the human 
species emigrating from the west to the east* 
M. D’Urville was made Rear-Admiral some days after his 
return from his last voyage. 
From the time of Ins arrival in Paris, he was entirely occu¬ 
pied in arranging and preparing for the press the history of his 
second expedition, until he met his unhappy fate. On May 
8 th, 1842, while travelling from Paris to Versailles, the 
railway train in which he was conveyed met with a fearful 
accident, and was partially consumed by fire. Deprived-of 
the means of extricating himself, he with his wife and son, and 
many other unfortunate sufferers, perished in the flames. 
The first two numbers of a Grammar of the New Zealand 
Language, presented by the author, the Rev. Mr. Maunsell, 
of Manikau, a member of the Society, were laid before the 
Society.—Also, from Dr. Buckland, Mr. Johnston’s Letter 
to the Marquis of Northampton on English Agriculture, with 
M. Brongniart’s Considerations mr la Vegetation .—Also a 
pamphlet from Professor Owen on Marsupialia and. JMonotre- 
Mata , and on the best Methods of conducting Zoological Obser¬ 
vations*, the Journal of the Agricultural Society, vol. 3, 
parti; Liebig’s Agricultural Chemistry, English translation ; 
on the Motion of Glaciers, by William Hopkins, Esq., 
Cambridge; the Proceedings of the Geological Society of 
London, Nos. 66—78, with the President’s address for 1840; 
and the Proceedings of the Zoological Society for 1840-41. 
The Secretary laid on the tabic letters from His Excellency 
Sir George Gipps, Messrs. Breton, Belcher, and Lewis, in 
acknowledgment of their election; from Captain Frome, 
Surveyor-General, South Australia, on the progress of Flinder’s 
monument at Port Lincoln; from Rev. T. J. Ewing, com- 
municating a corrected list of the Australian Mammalia and 
Reptilia enumerated by Mr. Gray; from Captain Cotton on 
the progress of his rotatory steam-engine at Norfolk Plains; 
from the Secretary of the Zoological Society, acknowledging 
the first number of the Tasmanian Journal; from W . Kermodc, 
Esq., M.L.C,, with the result of chemical experiments made 
upon different Soils submitted by him to Count Streleski ; 
from James Macarthur, Esq., jun., with an approved mode of 
mixing English Grasses for pastures in this Colony ; from R. 
IT. Davies, Esq., with an interesting account of the Sooty 
Petrol, or Mutton Bird of Bass’s Straits.—A translation froia 
