8 
REPORT OF THE 
himself the risk of the purchase, states in his Report, that it 
is not only the largest known example of the genus, hut that 
the species is so rare that he knows only of one other specimen, 
which is to be found in the British Museum; which, however, 
is one-third less in size, and by no means so complete, as that 
now in the possession of the Society. 
Our collection of Yorkshire fossils has also been enriched 
through purchases made by funds voted by the Committee of 
the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Club. They include many speci¬ 
mens of high scientific interest, and one especially, which 
determines a Whitby fossil, the nature of which has been 
hitherto problematical, to he an appendage to the vertebral 
column of an enormous osseous fish. A slab of mountain 
limestone from Richmond, covered with the beautiful new 
encrinites (Woodocrinus of De Koninck), has been added to 
the colleciion by an exchange with Mr. Wood. 
In the department of recent natural history the most valuable 
addition received during the year is a specimen of the rare and 
beautiful Opah or King-fish (Lampris guttata), taken at Redcar 
and purchased from C. Oxley, Esq. Lieut. Cholmeley has 
presented a valuable collection of shells, dredged by himself, 
principally at Ports Philip and Jackson. P. Hague, Esq., 
has given several valves of a species of river Mussel (Unio) 
illustrating a secret possessed by the Chinese of stimulating the 
animal to deposit shelly matter upon extraneous bodies, artifi¬ 
cially inserted within the shell, and thus forming pearls of a 
coarse quality in any required number. 
During 1857 the whole of the interior of the cases in the 
Geological room has been repainted, and a large proportion of 
the specimens washed, to clear them from the dust, which had 
greatly obscured the beauty of some of them, especially those 
from the Malton Oolites. An arrangement made with the 
Rev. P. P. Carpenter, of Warrington, to print labels in 
exchange for duplicate specimens, has been so far carried out, 
that labels for the whole of the plants of the Coal Measures 
and Yorkshire Oolites have been supplied to us. They are not 
limited to the species in possession of the Society, hut embrace 
all yet published as British. Every label combines wdtli the 
