COUNCIL FOR 1858. 
9 
furnished.* It was at his suggestion, that the Council 
determined to protect them by a screen of glass, from the 
injury to 'which their projecting portions might be exposed. 
The structure of the Plesiosaurus Zetlandicus appeared to 
him so curious, as to induce him to recommend that it should 
not be encased in the wall, so as to conceal its inferior 
surface, but deposited in a horizontal case, having been first 
carefully cleared of extraneous matter and arranged, by Mr. 
Dew of the British Museum, to whom he kindly undertook 
to give the necessary instructions. The Council have engaged 
Mr. Dew to visit York, hut as the time during which he can 
be absent from his duties in London is limited, it has been 
thought desirable that he should come when the increased 
length of the days would enable him to work longer in the 
Museum. The table for its reception is in preparation, and 
along with the Plesiosaurus will be deposited fossils belong¬ 
ing to the formation from which it was extracted. The 
space now vacant on the wall in which the two large saurians 
are encased, will be filled, it is hoped, hereafter by some 
similar remains, which time will no doubt bring to light in the 
rich strata of Whitby. The opposite side of the room will for the 
present be devoted to casts of saurians, which may hereafter 
be replaced by real specimens, if we should be so fortunate as 
to obtain them. 
The members of the Society will be desirous to know, 
what are the plans of the Council for the occupation of the 
two remaining rooms of the new building. With the appro¬ 
bation of Mr. Rudston Read, the valuable collection of British 
birds presented by him, will be removed from the upper room 
of the original building, in which it is now kept, and placed 
under the gallery, in the room which is entered from the 
zoological collection. Its position can easily be changed and 
* In a letter to the Rev. W. V. Harcourt, Professor Owen says : 
“ I retain Professor Phillips’s name Zetlandicus^ attached to the short-necked 
Plesiosaurus from Whitby in the York Museum. The long necked Plesiosaurus ” 
(Col. Cholmley’s) “is V\. homalospondylus; the Ichthyosaurus” (Mr. Eoundell’s) 
“ is Ichth. crassimanus. The one represents the PI. dolichodeirus of the Dorset 
Lias, the other, the Ichth. platyodon of the same Lias ; but both are distinct species, 
peculiar to Whitby.” 
