322 
Minutes of the 
Where a few lakes appear on the present map, hundreds in rea¬ 
lity exist, scattered over that great natural platform whose rough 
and undulating surface occupies the western portion ofTasmania. 
Raised from 2000 to 3000 feet above the level of the rest of the 
island, its average temperature is equivalent to that of a country 
lying in 52° south latitude, and its climate derives a temperate 
and humid character from the influence of the Southern Ocean, 
to which it is completely exposed. Fostqgpd but not relaxed by 
the genial sun of these favoured latitudes, the human race bids 
fair to attain a degree of physical energy which will exercise the 
happiest influence upon its social and intellectual developments. 
J. P. G. 
MINUTES OF THE TASMANIAN SOCIETY. 
August 4, 1847. 
Read a paper entitled “ Some account of the country between 
Lake St. Clair and Macquarie Harbour (V.D.L.).” By Mr. 
J. E. Calder, Government Surveyor. Communicated bv Lieut 
Kay, R.N. 
Read “ Meteorological Observations, more especially with refe¬ 
rence to the fall of rain in New South Wales.” By the Rev 
W. B. Clarke, M.A., F.G.S., &c. 
Read a “letter from W. S. MacLeay, Esq., addressed to the 
editors of the Sydney Morning Herald, on the skull exhibited at 
the Colonial Museum of Sydney as that of the ‘ Bunyip.’ ” (Pub¬ 
lished in the present number of the Tasmanian Journal.) 
Dr. W. R. Pugh drew the attention of the members to a series 
of experiments, published in the London Pharmaceutical Journal, 
on a poisonous plant which had destroyed many sheep, cattle, 
and horses at Swan River. (For particulars see page 312 of the 
present number of this Journal.) 
Mr. R. C. Gunn stated that the poisonous plant of Swan River 
alluded to was described in Sir W. J. Hooker’s London Journal 
of Botany to be a Gompholobium (of the nat. ord. Leguminosce), 
and in that work (vol. i. p. 93, &c.) there were some interesting 
letters dated in 1841 on this subject from Mr. James Drummond, 
the zealous Swan River botanist. Mr. Gunn observed that as 
great numbers of cattle had died on both sides of the river Tamar 
near the sea without any visible or known cause to which their 
