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TRANSACTIONS

ROYAL SOCIETY

” Hew South Wales,

FOR THE YEAR 1867.

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1868,

ROYAL SOCIETY

OF NEW SOUTH WALES.

—_—
OFFICERS FOR 1867.

—_o—

President :

HIS EXCELLENCY THE RIGHT HON. SIR JOHN YOUNG, BART,
K.C.B., G.C.M.G. &c., &e.

Vice-Presidents :

REV. W. B. CLARKE, M.A., F.G.S.
G. R. SMALLEY, ESQ,, B.A., F.R.A.S.

Honorary Treasurer :
EDWARD BEDFORD, ESQ.

Honorary Secretaries :
PROFESSOR PELL, B.A. | REV. WILLIAM SCOTT, M.A.

Council :
DR. ALLEYNE, GERARD KREFFT, Ese.
E. C. CRACKNELL, Esq. CHRISTOPHER ROLLESTON, Esq.
DR. FORTESCUE. PROFESSOR SMITH, M.D.

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FUNDAMENTAL RULES.

Object of the Society.
1.—The object of the Society is to receive at its stated meetings original
papers on subjects of Science, Art, Literature, and Philosophy, and especially
on such subjects as tend to develope the resources of Australia, and to illus-
trate its Natural History and Prodnctions-

President.

2.—The Governor of New South Wales shall be ex officio the President
of the Society.

Other Officers.
3.—The other Officers of the Society shall consist of two Vice-Presidents,
a Treasurer, and two or more Secretaries, who, with six other Members, shall
constitute a Council for the management of the affairs of the Society.

Election of Officers.

4.—The Vice-Presidents, Treasurer, Secretaries, and the six other Mem-
bers of the Council shall be elected annually at a General Meeting in the
month of May.

Vacancies during the year.

5.—Any vacancies occurring in the Council of Management during the
year, may be filled up by the Council.

Fees.

6.—The entrance money paid by Members on their admission shall be
One Guinea; and the annual subscription shall be One Guinea, payable in
advance.

The sum of Ten Pounds may be paid at any time as a composition for
the ordinary annual payment for life.

acy

vii

Honorary Members,

7.—The Honorary Members of the Society shall be persons who have
been eminent benefactors to this or some other of the Australian Colonies,
or distinguished patrons and promoters of the objects of the Society. Every
person proposed as an Honorary Member must be recommended by the Council
and elected by the Society. Honorary Members shall be exempted from pay-
ment of fees and contributions, they may attend the meetings of the Society
and they shall be furnished with copies of transactions, and proceedings,
publishedby the Society, but they shall have no right to hold office, to vote,
or otherwise interfere in the business of the Society.

Confirmation of By-Laws.

8.—By-Laws proposed by the Council of Management shall not be bind-
ing until ratified by a General Meeting.

Alteration of Fundamental Rules.

9.—No alteration of or addition to the Fundamental Rules of the Society
shall be made, unless carried at two successive General Meetings.

BY-LAWS.

=

1.—An Ordinary Meeting of the Royal Society, to be convened by Public
Advertisement, shall take place at 8 p.m., on the first Wednesday in every
month, during the last eight months of the year. These meetings will be
open for the reception of contributions, and the discussion of subjects of every
kind, if brought forward in conformity with the Fundamental Rules and By-
Laws of the Society.

Council Meetings.
2.—Meetings of the Council of Management shall take place on the last
Wednesday in every month, and on such other days as the Council may
determine.

Contributions to the Society.
3.—Contributions to the Society, of whatever character, must be sent to
one of the Secretaries, to be laid before the Council of Management. It will
be the duty of the Council to arrange, for promulgation and discussion at an
Ordinary Meeting, such communications as are suitable for that purpose, as
well as to dispose of the whole in the manner best adapted to promote the
objects of the Society.

Ordinary Members.
4,—Candidates for admission as ordinary members to be proposed and
seconded at one of the stated meetings of the Society. The vote on their ad-
mission to take place, by ballot, at the next subsequent meeting ; the assent
of the majority of the members voting at the latter meeting being requisite for
the admission of the candidate.

Non-Members to be notified of their Election.
5.—Every Member shall receive due notification of his election, together
with a Copy of the Fundamental Rules and By-Laws of the Society.

Introduction of New Members to the Society.
6.—Every Candidate duly elected as Member, should, on his first at-
tendance at a Meeting of the Society, be introduced to the Chair, by his pro-
poser, or seconder, or by some person acting on their behalf.

x

Annual Subscriptions, when due.
7.—Annual Subscriptions shall become due on the first of May for the
year then commencing. The Entrance fee and first year’s Subscription of a
New Member shall become due on the day of his election.

Members whose Subscriptions are not paid to enjoy no privileges.
8.—Members will not be entitled to attend the Meetings or to enjoy any
of the privileges of the Society until their entrance fee and subscription for
the year have been paid.

Subscriptions in arrear.
9.—Members who have not paid their subscriptions for the current year,
shall be informed of the fact by the Treasurer. If, thirty days after such
intimation, any are still indebted, their names will be formally laid before
the Society at the first Ordinary Meeting. At the next Ordinary Meeting,
those, whose subscriptions are still due, will be considered to have resigned.

Expulsion of Members.

10.—A majority of Members present at any Ordinary Meeting, shall have
power to expel an obnoxious Member from the Society, provided that a reso-
lution to that effect has been moved and seconded at the previous Ordinary
Meeting, and that due notice of the same has been sent in writing to the
Member in question, within a week after the Meeting at which such resolution
has been brought forward.

Admission of Visitors.
11.—Every Ordinary Member shall have the privilege of admitting one
friend as a Visitor to an Ordinary Meeting of the Society, on the following
conditions :—
1. That the name and residence of the Visitor, together with the name
of the Member introducing him, be entered in a book at the time.
2. That the Visitor does not permanently reside within ten miles of
Sydney, and,
3. That he shall not have attended two Meetings of the Society in the
current year.
The Council shall have power to introduce Visitors, irrespective of the
above restrictions.

Management of Funds.
12.—The funds of the Society shall be lodged at a Bank, named by the
Council of Management. Claims against the Society, when approved of by
the Council, shall be paid by the Treasurer.

Audit of Accounts.
13.—Two Auditors shall be appointed annually at an Ordinary Meeting
to Audit the Treasurer’s accounts. The Accounts as audited to be laid before
the Annual Meeting in May.

LIST OF MEMBERS

OF THE

Roval Soviety of Mew South THales.

Adams, P. F., Surveyor-General.

Allen, George, the Hon., M.L.C., Toxteth Park, Glebe.
Allen, Gerge Wigram, Elizabeth Street.

Allan, A. Elizabeth Street.

Allwood, Rev. R., King Street.

Armstrong, Walter Dickinson, Macquarie Street.
Alston, Dr., R. A., Artillery Barracks.

Ashdown, A., Department of Works, Phillip Street.

Barnet, James, Colonial Architect.

Bedford, Edward, Macquarie Street.

Beg, Rev. Dr., Crown Street.

Beilby, E. T., Macquarie Street.

Belinfante, Dr., Wynyard Square.

Belisario, Dr. Lyons’ Terrace.

Belmore, His Excellency the Right Hon., the Earl of
Berry, Alexander North Shore.

Boyd, Dr., Lyon’s Terrace.

Brereton, Dr., Macquarie Street.

Cave, Rey. Cave Brown.’

Campbell, Charles, Elizabeth Street.

Clarke, Rev. W. B., St. Leonard’s, North Shore.
Cox, Dr. James, Phillip Street.

Cracknell, E. C., Telegraph Office, George Street
Cronin, J. D., Darling Street, Balmain.

Deffell, G. H., Elizabeth Street.
Docker, Joseph, the Hon., M.L.C., Australian Club.

Fairfax, John, Herald Office.
Fairfax, J. R., Herald Office.
Flayelle, John, George Street.
Forster, R. M., York Street,

xil

Fortescue, Dr., Elizabeth Street.
Francis, Judge.

Gardiner, Martin, C. E., West Maitland.

Garran, Andrew, Phillip Street.

Goodlet, J., 124. Erskine Street.

Gowland, John, R. N., North Shore.

Goodchap, Charles, Civil Service Club.

Graham, Rev. James.

Gray, Samuel W., Wollumben, Tweed River, via Cassino.

Halloran, Henry, Colonial Secretary’s Office.
Hill, Edward, Rose Bay.

Holden, G. K., Land Titles’ Office.

Holt, The Hon. Thomas, M.L.C.

Hordern, A., Darling Point.

Hovell, Captain, Goulburn.

Hunt, Robert, Royal Branch Mint.

Jaques, T. J., Registrar-General.
Jones, Dr. Sydney, College Street.
Josephson, J. F., M.L.A., King Street.

Krefft, Gerard, Museum, College Street.

Lang, Rev. Dr., J. D., M.L.A.
Leibius, Dr. Adolph, Royal Branch Mint.
Lord, Francis, the Hon., M.L.C., North Shore.

Macarthur, the Hon., Sir William, M.L.A.

Mayes, Charles, 392, George Street.

McDonnell, William J., George Street.

McDonnell, William, George Street.

Metcalfe, M., Bridge Street.

Miles, Charles, Miles’ Buildings, George Street.

Miller, F., Royal Branch Mint.

Mitchell, James, the Hon., M. D., M.L.C., Cumberland Street.
Mitchell, D. P., Cumberland Street.

Morehead, R. A. A., 30, O’Connell Street.

Moore, Charles, Director of the Botanic Gardens.

Morrell, E. A. Phillip Street.

Mort, Thomas S., Pitt Street.

Murnin, M. E., Exchange, Bridge Street.

Murray, T. A., the Hon., President of the Legislative Council.

Nathan, Charles, Macquarie Street.

xii

O’Brien, Dr. Burwood.
O’Neil, E. H., King Street.

Paterson, Dr., Elizabeth Street, North.
Pell, Professor, Sydney University.
Phillips, Captain.

Prince, Henry, George Street.

Prout, Victor, Castlereagh Street.
Purcell, Captain, R.A., Artillery Barracks

Ramsay, Edward, (life) Dobroyd.

Reading, E., Phillip Street.

Roberts, J., George Street.

Roberts, Alfred, Castlereagh Street.

Roberts, Major, Double Bay.

Richards, Thomas, Government Printing Office.
Rolleston, Christopher, Auditor-General.

Ross, J. G., 193, Macquarie Street.

Russell, Henry, Sydney Observatory.

Reed, Howard, Pott’s Point.

Scott, Rev. William, (life) Warden of St. Paul’s College.
Scott, Montague, George Street.

Senior, F., George Street.

Smalley, G. R., Government Astronomer.

Smith, Professor, M.D., Sydney University.

Tebbutt, John, Junr., Windsor.

Tornaghi, A., George Street

Thomson, E. Deas, the Hon., M.L.C., C.B.'
Thomson, Dr., Sydney University.
Thompson, James, Treasury.

Tooth, Frederick, Parramatta Street.
Tucker, William, Clifton, North Shore.
Twynam, E., Goulburn.

Ward, R. D., North Shore.

Watt, Charles, Burwood.

Walker, P. B., Telegraph Office, George Street.
Weigall, A. B., Head Master, Sydney Grammar School.
Williams, Dr. Macquarie Street.

Windeyer, W. C. M.L.A., Elizabeth Street.

Wyatt, Rev. A. H., Berrima.

Young, His Excellency the Right Hon., Sir John, Bart.

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CONTENTS.

Inaugural Address by the Rey. W. B. Clarke, M.A., F.G.8., &., Vice-

President

Art. I.—On Non-linear Coresolvents, by the Honourable Chief Justice

Cockle, F.R.S., President of the Queensland Philo-
sophical Society

I1.—Remarks by Gerard Krefft, Hsq., Curator of the Sydney
Museum, on a paper by S. H. Wintle, Hsq., on the
-Bones found ina cave at Glenorchy, Tasmania

IIJ.—On the Auriferous and other Metalliferous Districts of
Northern Queensland, by Rev. W. B. Clarke, M.A.
&e., &e.

TV.—On the Re-appearance of Scurvy in the Merchant Service,
by E. Bedford, Esq., M.R.C.S.

V.—On the Rates of Mortality and Expectation of Lifein New
South Wales, as compared with England and other
countries, by M. B. Pell, Esq., B.A., Professor of
Mathematics in the University of Syduey. ...

Vi.—Note on the Geology of the Mary a By Rev. W. B:
Clarke, M.A., &e., &e aD Be

VII.—On the Mutual Influence of Clock Pendulums, by G. R.
Smalley, Esq., B.A., &c., Government Astronomer.

Page,

30

42

58

66

76

78

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TRANSACTIONS

OF THE

Royal Society of Hew South Hales.

Inaugural Address to the Royal Society, delivered at its first
meeting, 9th July, 1867, by the Rev. W. B. Clarke, M. A.,
F.G.S., §c., Vice-President.

GENTLEMEN of the Royal Society of New South Wales,—Before
I enter upon the more important portion of the Address which
I have been requested to deliver to-night, it appears to me only
an act of propriety to explain the circumstances under which
I have been selected for the duty which has thus been laid
upon me.

Naturally, it was anticipated that we should have the privilege
of listening to the more legitimate counsels of our Right
Honorable President. For myself, I can only express regret
that we shall be deprived of that privilege. The highly
cultivated taste and learning, the tact and accomplishment
which mark the public addresses of his Excellency Sir John
Young, will find but a sorry substitute in the more humble style

2 Inaugural Address.

and simpler expression of thought that can now be brought to
bear upon the subject before me.

I regret this the more, because we are indebted to his
Excellency’s courtesy and kindly zeal in our behalf, for having
obtained for us from the Queen her Majesty’s gracious sanction
and authority tc carry on our future labours under the Royal
patronage. And, in expressing my own regret, I feel assured
that I only utter the united sentiments of all here present.

On learning that his Excellency was unable to accede to the
the desire of the Council, an application was then made to the
Senior Vice-President, requesting him to undertake the duty of
opening the business of this Session. But here, again, we have
had to suffer disappointment. The claims of the Legislature
and of the high office of Chancellor of the University prevent
us receiving the advantage which the scientific tastes and
readiness to assist in the progress of social institutions, evidenced
during many years by the Hon. E. Deas Thomson, would have
conferred on our present objects.

In this emergency, the Council did me the honour of asking
ne to fill the place which I had hoped would have been so much
ore satisfactorily occupied.

I cannot, however, but be fully aware, that there are other
members of this Society who could, more efficiently than myself,
undertake what is proposed, and the Council can testify that I
have not been anxious to occupy so prominent a position.

But, Gentlemen, as your fayour has annually during a period
of nine years assigned to me the honourable rank which I hold
on the roll of the Society, it might seem, if I refused under a
condition such as the present, that I exhibited a coldness and
indifference to your interests, which would be in striking
contrast with the readiress and diligence which, I trust, have
always characterised my previous relations with you.

To claim your indulgence therefore, for what I may think it
right to address to you on this occasion, respecting some
important matters affecting our future career, as well as in
relation to the past, will, I am convinced, be to obtain it,
although I do not venture to consider you responsible for the
opinions which I may be led to express.

Inaugural Address. , 3

The first suggestions which I would make are in relation to the
change of designation from “ Philosophical” to “ Royal Society”
of New South Wales.

Some persons may not see any advantage in this change:
others may impute to its projectors some trifling ambition in
propounding it, and may think that no true man of science or
letters would desire to seek such a method of advancement as
depends on an alteration of the kind. I am, however, quite
sure that the advocates for the change had no such views as that.

Many members of the Society had long considered (and it
must be confessed, I went with them) that we had been in the
habit of admitting topics for discussion which cannot be con-
sidered as coming under the head of Philosophy. In our
proceedings, both by act and by sanction, we have frequently
ignored the title of the Society.

Its original Constitution provided that “our meetings will be
open for the reception of contributions and the discussion of subjects
of every kind,’ if “in accordance with our fundamental rules and
by-laws: and it is stated in those rules, that “the object of the
Society is to receive at its stated meetings, original papers on subjects
of Science, Art, Literature, and Philosophy.” Further, in the
new rules that have been framed since the change of title, you
will find that that there is added: “and especially on such subjects
as tend to develop the Physical character of the Colony, and illus-
trate its Natural history and Productions.

It is certain, therefore, that in neither class of rules have the
founders or supporters of the Society really intended what,
strictly speaking, the term “Philosophical Society” implies.
Such a Society must be understood to imply an association of
Philosophers, or one for the advancement of Philosophy ; whereas,
hitherto that department of enquiry has never received any
recognition from us, and, perhaps, never will.

It is, also, quite clear that, whatever was actually intended
was something not embraced by Science, Art, or Literature; for
Philosophy was admitted as only one of a number of subjects
and, apparently, as the least prominent among them.

It is not necessary to suppose from this conclusion, that it is
intended by me to treat with undeserved disrespect any of the
pursuits that may engage the faculties of mankind. But itis

4 Inaugural. Address.

one thing to admire what may be exalted in Philosophy, and
another to admit it as a subject for discussion. It is one thing
to respect the method by which a logical argument is to be
maintained, and another to defend the introduction of inyesti-
gations which, however interesting, are often based on conjecture,
and are altogether speculative. We ought to be labouring for the
development of the Physical character of the country we live in,
and the illustration of its Natural History and Productions, since
this appears to be now admitted as the especial object of our
researches.

The title, therefore, which this Society has hitherto borne
(as well as many others of like kind in Europe) is a misnomer.

Few who assemble here would, perhaps, claim the rank of
Philosophers. Already wearied with the necessary occupations
of their daily hfe, many would prefer the relaxation of their
minds in less aspiring pursuits than in refined and difficult
inquiries as to final causes, or the structure of the human mind.
Already, perhaps, the word “ Philosophical” has tended rather
to the decrease than to the increase of our supporters. A dis-
cussion on a question which is capable of general comprehension,
or which bears on the relations of Colonial Industry, is certainly
more likely to gratify the public taste, at this early period of
our history, than deep meditation on such a pursuit as Seneca
describes, when he says of Philosophy : “ Animum format et
Sabricat, vitam disponit, actiones regit, agenda et omittenda demon-
strat,’ a work which, in these days, is reserved for the Pulpit
rather than for the Lecture-room.

Nor, if we seek in later times for a character of Philosophy,
shall we meet with one which carries with it any high conviction
of its usefulness. Locke himself tells us: “aman may find an
infinite number of propositions, reasonings and conclusions in
books of Metaphysical school-divinity, and some sort of Natural
Philosophy ; and, after all, know as little of God, spirits, or
bodies, as he did before he set out.”

And, if we consult Mr. Lewes, who has devoted his whole life
to the study of Philosophy and has written a very able and
searching Biographical history of all its systems from the
beginning to the present tine, we shall find him declaring that
Philosophy is “a Desert, whose only semblance ot vegetation is

Inaugural Address. 5

a mirage—the Desert without fruit, without flower, without
habitation, and without horizon ; arid, trackless, silent, but vast
awful, and fascinating :”’* adding, that “if we understand by
Philosophy what all Philosophers consider it, Metaphysics, then to
attempt to construct a science of Metaphysics is an impossi-
bility.” +

_ There can be no question that since the time of Bacon, this
definition of Philosophy is the true one.

Surely, then, the title, “ Philosophical Society,” has been very
suitably dispensed with: and there isa growing dislike to assume
such a title in the formation of Scientific societies at home.

The former systems of what was called Philosophy have now
passed away. Intellectual inquiry is pursuing a different
direction. It is not now the employment of the Schools of
learning to ascertain by the processes of Logic those invisible
things which are beyond the attainment of reason, but rather to
make discoveries in things visible, hoping thus to obtain an
insight into that which mere Philosophy can never reach.

What risk may be run in even this method, may be in some
degree perceived by a careful perusal of the chapters “On the
objects of Physcial Science” in “Brown’s Lectures on the
Philosophy of the Human Mind,” in which, by the way, he quotes
a very witty illustration of the subject from De Fontenelle in his
work entitled Hutretiens sur la pluralité des mondes. (p.12). “ All
Philosophy, I tell you, is founded only on two things, upon the
fact that we possess an inquisitive mind and bad eyes. For, if
you had better eyes than you have, you would distinctly see
whether the stars are suns, illuminating so many worlds, or
whether they are not; andif, on the other hand, you were less
inquisitive you would not care to know, which would come to the
same thing: but people wish to know more than they see—there
is the difficulty. Even if that which they see, they saw correctly,
something would so far be known; but they see quite the con-
trary of what really is. Thus the true Philosophers pass their
lives in not believing what they see and in trying to guess at what
they do not see, and this condition as it appears to me is not
very desirable.”

* Vol. II, Page 224. + Vol. ITI, Page 4-6,

6 Inaugural Address.

He then goes on to imagine an assemblage at the opera, of
Philosophers, such as Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle and those
gentry that made such a noise in his days, who watch the
stage operations, and look in vain for the contrivances by which
they are carried on. He imagines Phaeton to be flying across,
and then they discuss the mode of his motion, one advancing one
theory and another another, so introducing all the various
Philosophical guesses at what could be clearly seen, if they could
only get at the back of the scenes. And then he says “to see
Nature as she is, is merely to see behind the scenes of a theatre.”

His pupil, a certain Marchioness, remarks,—“ At this rate
Philosophy has become very mechanical.” To which Fontenelle
replies :—“ So mechanical that I think they will be soon ashamed
of it.”’

Whether our expounders of the nature of things in the present
day will ever be ashamed of their speculations on what they
cannot see, or their interpretations of what they do see, must be
left for the progress of development; but we may be sure of this
that no human processes will ever discover answers to the grand
questions :— Whence came the world? What is the nature of
God? What is the nature of the human mind? Why is the
universe formed as it is ?

But, certainly, there is more ground to apprehend what is
useful to man in his present state of existence, by observation
and experiment, than in wild speculations and oftentimes incorrect
propositions, which are found to end more commonly in sceptical
than in theistic opinions. The present tendency of intellectual
inquiry is an acknowledgment that the old modes of philoso-
phising have been found insufficient for the attainment of truth.
And, although, we may perceive even in the new method, that
there is as much danger as in the schemes of metaphysicians,
yet, if we keep in mind the fact that the visible universe is
the creation of One whose existence and essence the old
philosophers vainly sought to discover, though these will ever be
“past finding out to perfection ;’ we may by examining its visible
phenomena, arrive at a useful acquaintance with “ parts of His
ways,’ and come to a clearer comprehension of some of His
attributes.

Inaugural Address. 7

The term “ Scientific Association” would, therefore, have been
a better designation than Philosophical Society, as more suitable
to the spirit of the age; and if, instead of one pursuit alone,
which is the characteristic of a Geological, a Geographical, or an
Entomological Society it is intended to permit investigations of
the whole round of Physical Sciences (as this Society professes),
then a more general and comprehensive designation, suitable on
account of its undefined vagueness is anadvantage. We cannot,
assuredly, obtain a better than that which, at the same time, gives
a sanction honourable to those who accept it.

This opinion is in agreement with the Report of a Committee
appointed by the Council, and presented for adoption on the 26th
July, 1865, to consider the propriety of the change of title.

To such as object to change, it may be said, that it will not
prevent our cultivation of Science, Art, or Literature, in that
“spirit of Philosophy’ which a celebrated writer has said “is
even more valuable than any limited acquirement of philosophy.

Tt need not, however, be pointed out, that the spirit in which
truth is sometimes sought for in the present age is anything but
philosophical; for having cast off the darkness of the past, men
are sometimes found shutting their eyes against the only light
of truth which they already possess.

There is, I hope, no need for apology in venturing to remark
that there appears to me to be only one true Philosophy, that
which is given to and not elaborated by man—“ revealed,” to use
the words of Mr. Lewes,* who is not particularly bigoted in
favour of the supernatural—“ because inaccessible to Reason,
revealed and accepted by Faith, because Reason is utterly incom-
petent ;” nor will this proposition be disputed by any here, that
if a Revelation of any kind has been given by the Creator, it will
in the end be found not in contradiction to the works of His
hand. And, although men may now be occupied in studying
what are called the Laws of Nature, if the fallacies which are
often uttered in relation to them, being as they are only the
mode of creative action, are abjured, the Positive Philosopher
will be led to see, that those very laws are not in opposition to,
but the expression of creative will. We have not entertained as

* Vol. II, Page 223.

8 Inaugural Address.

yet, and I hope we shall not entertain, at our meetings, any
discussions on such abstruse questions as these.

We have, then, done well in following the example of the learned
Societies of the sister Colonies. Let us now trace the coinci-
dences. The Royal Society of Victoria sprang from the Philoso-
phical Institute. The Royal Society of Tasmania rose on the
pedestal of that useful Association, the Tasmanian Society, haying
adopted, for the addition “of Van Diemen’s Land,’ the more
euphonious and correct designation by which it is now known.
As a humble Corresponding Member of the latter, I hail with
pleasure, in the person of our present Treasurer, a late Iellow of
the same.

The Royal Society of Victoria did not, however, advance so
rapidly, per saltum, as did the Tasmanian Society. It went
through three stages before it became full fledged. For, the
Victorian Institute, the Philosophical Society of Victoria, and
the Philosophical Institute of Victoria, all lent their aid towards
the completion of the Society as it now exists.

Our own Society has had its changesalso. At first, in the year
1821, it commenced as the “ Philosophical Society of Australia,”
a very lofty title for its dozen founders and members. It then,
in 1850, after a long interval of silence and inactivity, came out
as the “Australian Philosophical Society,” till in 1856, still
contracting its territorial limits, it became represented by the
“ Philosophical Society of New South Wales,” merging itself in
that which now represents it, on the Ist May, 1866.

It has been said (an imputation to which I alluded before) that
some of our members aspire to follow the example of the sister
Society, and to assume the distinctive letters F.R.S. If that is
our ambition, it is not one of a very high order. We must win
our spurs before we wear them, waiting for a charter to confer
that by right which ought not to be assumed without authority.
Such a privilege, if it be supposed to confer any distinction (and
without that it would be valueless), ought not to be made depen-
dent on sufferance or merely on the payment of a guinea annual
subscription.

We are, and have been hitherto, only a small Association.

May I venture to add that, being small, it would be wellif our
little hive contained only working bees; though, perhaps, our

Inaugural Address. 9

Treasurer will assert, that philosophical drones cannot be dis-
pensed with, since they bring in as much material support in one~
way, as do those who are foraging in the fields of research.

Nevertheless, it is incumbent on all to consider, that if we are
supposed to gain by Royal recognition, we ought to be more than
ever careful not to accumulate pabulum for the public use which
may make Royalty ashamed of its patronage. The watchfulness
of the Council will generally prevent mistake in this respect;
and hitherto it may be allowed there has been no reason for the
exercise of interference on that accouut.

So far as the Society has been the means by which facts of an
‘interesting and useful kind have been collected,—so far as it has
assisted in the advancement of local knowledge it has done its
duty ; and no contributor has had ground for complaint as ta the
reception which his individual endeavours have met with at the
hands of the Council.

Here it may not be amiss to put in a word of warning by way
of providing against the possibility of mischance.

We have now become a publishing Society, and it may be pru-
dent to have a provision inserted in our By-laws by which the
publication of Memoirs read before the Society shall be regulated,
so as to do justice, on the one hand, to the authors, and on the
other to the Society itself. This need not interfere with the
discretion which the Council ought to possess as to the admission
of what is to be read and discussed. Nor is such a regulation
uncalled for on another ground.

So long as our funds are limited, it is needful that all due
economy should be exercised The Government patronises Schools
of Arts and Mechanics’ Institutes at considerable cost to the
revenue, and supports also the Australian Museum; but this .
Society which is patronised and upheld by the Governor and
some high Officers of the Colony, receives no stipend, such as
the Royal Society of Victoria has received for publication of its
Transactions. We are thrown entirely on our annual subscrip-
tions. It is, therefore, possible that the Council may be com-
pelled occasionally to deny to authors of valuable contributions
that which their ambition or their merits may claim, the full
publication of those contributions to which the authors themselves
contribute nothing beyond the annual guinea. It is possible to

B

10 Inaugural Address.

obviate in part a difficulty of this kind by allowing Abstracts to
be inserted, when a memoir is too long or of too impracticable a
character. But in such a case the author should be permitted to
draw up his own Abstract, which would prevent distortion of his
views and opinions.

The first volume of our Transactions, published last year, was,
in consequence of the cost of printing, deprived of illustrations
which were actually required. The funds of the Society did not
admit of them. <A change of Title will not prevent even the
dissolution of any Society which is indifferent to the condition
of its exchequer.

If, therefore, we desire to make progress, we must endeavour
to adjust the means of progression. 7

Dry as this discussion may be considered, it will, I hope be not
found unprofitable. We must look, Gentlemen, to the conse-
quences of our own acts.

The publication of our Transactions involves further consider-
ations of a financial character. We profess to exchange our
publications with those of other Societies, and we engage also to
admit ad eundem gradwm, or by honorary election, members of
such Societies into our own ranks.

This is desirable on many accounts, and it is to be hoped the
University will ere long act on the same principle.

But we cannot carry out this arrangement properly whilst we
dwell in nubibus. We require provision for a “ local habitation,”
as well asa “name.” As at present constituted, we have no
quarters of our own. Men who aspire to have an influence on
Society ought not to be like Tartars or Gipsies, without a fixed
habitation. We have not even a moveable tabernacle of our own.
We assemble in rooms hired for the occasion. Now, if one of
those eminent strangers from other lands, with whom we are
anxious to be in social communication, come to this city—if he
seek the house of the Society, or its Library, or, what it ought to
have, its Museum—whither is he to be directed? If other
Societies send us their publications in exchange, where are they
to be found by our own Members? There are many books and
memoirs at this moment belonging to us—where are they? Some
are, I believe, in the charge of our Associate the Curator of the
Australian Museum, but there are no regulations (such as apply

Inaugural Address. 11

to the use of books belonging to the Trustees of that institution)
by which they can be obtained without risk of loss, and we have
no right to lay on the Curator work which it is not his to perform.
They should be catalogued and placed where they can easily be
found. What would be the compliment of enrolling visitors ina
“nomade” institution, with no “locus in guo’’—no spot of earth
that itcan callitsown? ‘This evil is just as great to ourselves as
to others. It would be wellif some remedy could be found for
it. If, after all, we must patronise some sort of philosophy we
had better not select that of Diogenes, even though he had a tub
of his own.

From these remarks respecting our present state and future
prospects, we have now to turn our attention to the past. It
will be proper to start ab ovo.

It appears then, that in the year 1821, a company of gentlemen
consisting of

Alexander Berry, Esq.

Henry Grattan Douglas, Esq., M.D.

Barron Field, Esq., Judge of the Supreme Court.

Major Goulburn, Colonial Secretary.

Patrick Hill, Esq., Colonial Surgeon.

Captain Irwin. XI. Bengal N.I.

Captain P.P. King, R.N.

John Oxley, Esq., Surveyor-General.

Charles Stargard Rumker, Esq., Astronomer; and

Edward W olstonecraft, Esq.,
formed themselves into the Philosophical Society of Australasia,
under the presidency of His Excellency Sir Thomas Brisbane,
K.C.B., F.R.S.L., and E.

The only survivor of this group is Alexander Berry, Esq., still
a member and the patriarch of our Society, and who yet retains,
after a long and eventful life, much of the bodily vigour and all
the intelligence that characterised him so long ago. It is an in-
teresting fact, that, ‘‘ per varios casus per tot discrimina rerum,”
this Society retains at least one link, to bind the present with
the past, and which enables us to connect the scientific zeal of
those days with that of our own.

This early union appears to have partaken rather of the character
of a Mutual Friendly Association, than of that of a more formal

12° Inaugural Address.

body. It was, in other words, a Scientific Club. At that time,
there were no public libraries and scarcely a bookseller’s shop in
the Colony; but.the members possessed books of their own;
these were catalogued and lent by one to another, so that the
use of them was reciprocal. The business of the Society was
transacted at the dwelling-houses of the members in succession,
where memoirs, prepared on an alternative of a fine of ten pounds
sterling, were read and discussed, the only refreshment allowed
being a cup of coffee and a biscuit, an arrangement still in vogue,
I believe in England, and which was followed here in later times
at the meetings of our Society in 1855-6.

I have not been able to discover more than four of the papers
read by members, and these were preserved as a portion only of
the Society’s Transactions and edited by Judge Wield in his
“ Geographical Memoirs of New South Wales by various hands,”
published by John Murray, of Albemarle Street, in the year 1825.
These papers were the following :-—

1. “On the Aborigines of New Holland and Van Diemen’s
Land,” by Baron Field, Esq., read 2nd January, 1822.

2. “On the Geology of part of the Coast of New South Wales,”
(from the River Hunter to the Clyde), read in the same year by
Alexander Berry, Esq.

3. “On the Astronomy of the Southern Hemisphere,” by Dr.
Rumker, read on the 13th March, 1822; and

4. “On the Maritime Geography of Australia,’ by Captain
Philip Parker King, R.N., read 2nd October, 1822.

In Mr. Field’s book, there are also papers by Mr. Oxley, and
meteorological notices by Major Goulburn and Sir Thomas
Brisbane. We have evidence, therefore, that at least seven of
the twelve were working members.

Mr. Allan Cunningham, the Botanist (whose death I recollect
at the Botanical Gardens shortly after my arrival in 1839), also
contributed two papers, the one describing his traverse from
Bathurst to Liverpool Plains, in 1823 ; the other, “ On the Botany
of the Blue Mountains,” as observed in November and December,
1822.

As these last papers do not appear to have been read before
the Society, it is probable Mr. Cunningham was not a member
of it, But, without doubt, the actual members did good service

Inaugural Address. 13

to the Colony. Of only one of their memoirs do I venture to
form an opinion, and that is one which I expressed in 1860, in
my book on the Southern Gold Fields, in the following words :—
“Tn the year 1822, my respected friend, Alexander Berry, Hsq.,
read a very interesting paper on the geology of the Clyde River,
before the Philosophical Society of Australasia. At that early
period, Mr. Berry had successfully made out all the prominent
features of the district, as well as along the coast, and has pointed
out the vertical strata of schist, the quartz, the trap, and the sand-
stone, with their order of succession. It gives me great satisfac-
tion to mention this.” (p. 45.)

Some of our members may have been unaware of the high
claims which Mr. Berry, on account of his talents, enterprise,
and acquirements, has on the respect of our Society. Probably,
very few of ourselves will equal him in his years of membership,
now amounting to nearly halfa century.

The Philosophical Society which thus commenced with flatter-
ing promises of future usefulness, was destined to only a brief
period of service. A question arose between the Government
and some of the members which led to estrangement. The
friendly meetings became fewer, and the fictitious variable value
assigned to the dollar (the coin then current) was the cause of
breaking up the little band who cultivated science for the love of it.

Judge Field thus speaks of that mishap, in connection with
the seven memoirs before mentioned: “ Such of them’”’ (z.e. of
the several documents in his book) as are parts of the Transactions
of the Philosophical Society of Australasia are printed by per-
mission of their respective authors; for, I am sorry to add, that
the infant Society soon expired in the baneful atmosphere of
distracted politics, which unhappily clouded the short adminis-
tration of its President, the present’ (7.e. the then) “ Governor
of New South Wales. Let me hope that it is only a case of
suspended animation, and that our little Society will be resusci-
tated by the new Colonial Government.”’

This, Gentlemen, is all of much importance that I have been
able to learn, after search in the publications of the period, and
conyerse with my venerable friend Mr. Berry. My late friend
Admiral King, did, however, inform me, that there were some
other little grievances, besides the proceedings of Major Goulburn,

14 Inaugural Address.

which prevented the early resuscitation spoken of by Judge
Field. And I know personally that, at the time when the
Australian Society was projected, there was such a difference
between the gallant Admiral and the former Secretary as to pre-
vent cordial working in behalf of that Society.

One other fact requires to be noticed here. The erection of
the tablet of brass, which is affixed to Cape Solander, the southern
head of Botany Bay, was the act of the Philosophical Society.
The members—headed by their President, Sir Thomas Brisbane,
—made an unsuccessful attempt to cross the Heads on the 13th
March, 1822, but succeeded completely on the 20th March, in
affixing the tablet 25 feet above the sea level against the rock on
which Captain James Cook and Sir Joseph Banks first landed in
1770. And in the inscription itself it is expressly stated that the
transaction occurred “in the first year of the Philosophical
Society of Australasia.”’

It will be recollected, that this was discussed in the public
journals not very long ago in connection with the names of Mr. _
Berry and Dr. Douglass, when an attempt was make to do further
honour to the memory of Cook by the erection of a statue.

May it be asked, whether it would be unworthy of the present
Society to assist in the completion of what was begun by its’
predecessor forty-five years ago? Perhaps, it might be more
properly deferred till the centenary shall be complete, 2. e., if our
Society be then in existence, three years hence or in A. D. 1870.

Incidentally referring to Judge Field’s volume, I find in it
many traces of the accomplishments of its Editor. His own
labours were not confined to the more scientific memoirs, but he
gives a narrative of voyages between England and New South
Wales, to and fro; Journals of excursions to the Blue Moun-
tains and to the Illawarra; a selection of poems, the “ First
Fruits of Australian Poetry ;’ and a brief Glossary of natural
productions. In reading these, I came upon the mention of a
fact which just at this time, when the flood of last month, which
raised the Nepean or Hawkesbury sixty feet above its level, is so
fresh in our memory, may be of use to speculators on the char-
acter of that visitation. The writer says, “It is this river,
whether we call it Hawkesbury or Nepean, that is the Nile of
Botany Bay; for the land on its banks owes its fertility to the

Inaugural Address. 15

floods which come down from the Blue Mountatns, and which have
been known to swell the waters nearly a hundred feet above their
usual level; and these floods are uncertain and often destructive
of the growing crops. I once thought that Government (if it is
to farm at all) had better have kept the whole of this precarious
garden in its own hands; since it is only public foresight that
would provide against the loss of a harvest, and only public
wealth that could support it.”

This was written in October, 1822. Mr. Wentworth also states
that in the early days of colonial history, the Nepean has risen
97 feet. I merely add to these notices, hoping to incorporate
them and others in a paper on the subject which I propose read-
ing at no distant day, that a deposit of drift pebbles, the work of
ancient floods, has been traced by me on the low grounds and
heights bordering the river, and for 80 miles, varying in level
from the river bed to upwards of 400 and 700 feet above the sea,
and these pebbles have been dispersed by more modern inunda-
tions. The present floods are, therefore, not in great excess of
any former inundations.

To return now to our main subject. The interval between
1822 and 1856 was marked by a partial resuscitation of the Philo-
sophical under the name of the Australian Philosophical Society,
which was formed in the beginning of 1850, “for the encourage-
ment of Arts, Sciences, Commerce, (otherwith Manufactures), and
Agriculture in Australia.”

Of this his Excellency Sir Charles Fitz Roy was Patron; the
Honorable E. Deas Thomson, F.L.S8., President; the Honor-
able, now Sir Charles Nicholson, Bart, then Speaker of the Legis-
lative Council, Vice-President. A Council was also appointed,
consisting of the following members :—

Arthur a’ Beckett, Esq.

Alexander Berry, Esq.

William Bland, Esq.

Rev. W. B. Clarke, M.A., F.G.S.

Charles Cowper, Esq., M.C.

G. K. Holden, Esq.

Rev. R. L. King, B.A.

Francis Merewether, Esq., B.A.

Sir T. L. Mitchell, Knt., Surveyor-General.

16 Inaugural Address.

Dr. Shanks, Head of the Army Medical Staff.
Samuel Stutchbury, Esq., Mineralogical and Geological Sur-
veyor. .

Rey. G. E. Turner, L.L.B.

R. G. Want, Esq. ; with

R. A. A. Morehead, Esq., as Treasurer; and -

H. G. Douglass, Esq., M.D., as Honorary Secretary,
to whom was afterwards attached the late A. Myles, Esq., In-
spector of Police. Dr. Douglass ought to have the chief credit
of the revival, though I do not know to what extent. I remem-
ber that I attended the first meeting, and several afterwards. But
asin 1851, ’2, 3, I was in the wilderness, exploring, I have only a
general dim recollection of what took place during that period.
As Mr. Douglass and Mr. Myles are no more, and Mr. Morehead
is in Europe, I have not been able to obtain access to the official
records of the Society, but I am informed by our Assistant
Secretary that some time before the death of Dr. Douglass, appli-
cation was made to him in reference to the records and papers;
but they were not then in his possession, nor did he know what
had become of them. Mr. Morehead’s papers have also been
searched for in vain. Since then, from Mr. Catlett’s further
search in the newspapers, at my request, a few data have been
gleaned, which enable me to put on record now some of the pro-
ceedings.

The proposal to form an Australian Philosophical Society was
made in January, 1850; on the 24th January the Herald news-
paper introduced it by a leading article. Mr. Norton wrote an
intended oration, which he published on the 14th February.

On 17th June, a paper by Sir T. L. Mitchell, “On the Un-
developed Resources of the County of Cumberland,” was read by
Dr. Douglass, and some discussion ensued on ‘“ dye woods,” and
“on the fossil bones of the New Zealand Moa,’ in which, I find,
I took a considerable part.

On 5th September, papers were read by Sir T. L. Mitchell, on
the natural fruits and grasses of the colony ; by Mr. C. Lowe, on
the “ Argonauta, or Paper Nautilus’; on the Alpaca; and by
Mr. Gee, on Dyes.

On 20th October, Mr. Edwin Hickey read “ Observations on
the alleged scarcity of Cedar in New South Wales.”

Inaugural Address. 17

On 11th January, 1851, Sir T. L. Mitchell read his paper on
the “Bomerang propeller’; and on 23rd May, another “On
the connection between Science and Artina new colony”; which
was followed by one “ On the application of machinery as a means
of saying hand labour,’ by Mr. Capper.

There are notices of gold medals offered, to be adjudged in
1851, for the production of Madder, growth of Cotton, Metals
from Colonial ore, and Sugar. Whether these medals were ever
adjudged, does not appear.

Nor is it shown what became of the Society, though itis probable
its decay, after a period of great activity and intended usefulness,
was brought about in the first instance by the excitement of the
first rush to the gold-fields. The results of the labours that I
undertook in consequence for the Government, do not form part
of the work of the Society, but have been recorded elsewhere.

We come now to the period in which the Philosophical Society
was restored in the year 1856; and it is but an act of justice to
give the then Governor-General, Sir William T. Denison, credit
for a very active share in its revival.

His Excellency became President, and the Hon. Sir Charles
Nicholson, and the Hon. E. Deas Thomson, Vice-Presidents.
But the first impulse was felt among the members of the Austra-
lian Society, who met at the Royal Hotel, on 30th July, 1855,
and resolved to remodel the Society under the territorial title of
New South Wales. The members of the Australian Society
passed over without re-election, and the former Secretary and
Treasurer were retained. The first meeting of the Philosophical
Society was held in the Lecture-room of the School of Arts, on
Friday, 9th May, 1856. Other meetings were held in this Hall,
and in the Sydney Chamber of Commerce at the Exchange.
From its commencement a minute book has been kept, and the
business of the Committee and of the monthly general meetings
has been recorded.

On the 19th December, 1860, the Society presented a Farewell
Address to the Governor-General, who on the 15th May, 1861,
was succeeded by our present Governor, the Right Hon. Sir
John Young, Bart.

From the commencement of Sir William Denison’s presidency

c

\

3° Inaugural Address.

to this date, no less than eighty-three Monthly meetings have
been held, besides an occasional Conversazione.

And in addition to brief notices, there have been read upwards
of one hundred papers, some of considerable extent, by forty-two
Contributors.

For the sake of convenience, I have classified ninety-six of
them under the following sixteen distinctive heads :—

On subjects connected with No of papers.

1. Agriculture

Qe AMA COWS aoe okt len cy ek ae me 5
OD. FAMtIGUITICS Yue. Naver esc 2
4. Arts and Scientific Baoan. my 5
5. Astronomy vauishactors Cait caie: Pants ahaa ames
GROAN eel y. ees cee eee 2
fee hemiSi raya: see 5
8. Engineering Gacitnding Railways, TRenKls ) 17

Telegraphy, &e. Gish escent

9. Exploration sp 4
10. Geology and Mining... 9
11. Magnetism 2
12. Manufactures Gneluding Syduey milk) 3
13. Mathematics 5
14. Meteorology a
15. Natural History 9

16. Statistics ... ... 8

This list proves very clearly that ae ae of the Society has
been generally kept in view, for we find that Science, Art, and
Literature, have been represented, though Philosophy itself as
such, does not assert its existence, leading us to believe that
“‘ Philosophical Society’? was really a “ lucus anon lucendo”’
designation after all.

It is usual on such occasions as this, for the Annual Address
to contain a kind of abstract of the work done in the previous
year or years, or a discussion on some prominent memoir; but
having myself taken part in the contributions of the last two

* This was a very curious enquiry, to trace the source of the water employed
in the adulteration of milk sold in Sydney, by the animalcule found
in it.

Inaugural Address. 19

years, and on various other occasions, I consider myself properly
restrained from entering on criticism.

Some of our papers have found a place in the Volume of Trans-
actions, edited by our late Secretary, W. J. Stephens, Esq., who,
in making his selecton did his best, finding it impossible from
want of sufficient means to do more, and this has consumed three-
fourths of the fund accumulated in former years.

The volume wants an Introduction and Index, and also what
would have been useful, such a brief account of the Monthly and
Committee meetings as would keep the members acquainted with
the Secretary’s and the Council’s proceedings. Many useful and
interesting facts, not of sufficient importance for a separate
memoir, would be thus recorded. On the whole, it must be ad-
mitted that this volume proves the Society to be in working order.
Of the twenty-six papers selected, half, at least, are dedicated to
subjects expressly leading to develop “the resources of Australia
and to illustrate its Natural History and productions,” the very
condition inserted in the fundamental rules of the Royal Society.

It would occupy too much time to-night to digress from these
business-like details to a notice of the progress of Art, Science,
and Literature beyond our own limits, otherwise I would have
desired to make mention of the many public Engineering works
which have been advanced during the last year ;—the progress
of the Entomological Society, which though standing aloof from
combination with ourselves is doing very good work within the
range of our pursuits; the exertions of the Acclimatisation
Society ; and the various Scientific matters brought under public
notice by the N. S. W. Commissioners of the Intercolonial and
International Exhibitions of 1867.

If time will not permit of such a disgression, much less can I
glance even at the various interesting topics with which the
Scientific Journals of the other hemisphere abound, and in which
some of our active members would find more engaging subjects
than those on which I have been compelled to enter this evening.

Before I conclude it will be proper to revert to them once
more. Recalling, then, the facts which belong to the history of
this Society—(creditable as they are to it)—it is but rational to
ask, Why is the Society not ina more prosperous condition ?
Why, if it is as useful as it has been represented to be, is it now
so feeble in its vitality ?

20 Inaugural Address.

It would not be right to close our present meeting without a
moment’s reflection on these allegations. An answer to these
questions ought to be obtainable.

One of our most critical members—I mean Christopher
Rolleston, Esq.—in a most valuable paper read on the 12th
December, 1866, “‘ On the Condition and Resources of the Colony,”
has shown very conclusively that, notwithstanding the fluctuations
and interruptions of public prosperity, the mass of the people
have continued to follow up their long-accustomed pursuits of
costly enjoyment without diminution of expense. It must not,
therefore, be asserted that our numbers have diminished because
persons are unable to spend a guinea a year to support or to
encourage sucha Society as this. It is, then, to the want of Will
to do so, that we must, in part at least, if not altogether, impute
the languishing state of our affairs.

But why should there be this want of Will? The true solution
is, perhaps, a complicated one.

In the pecular habit of the people there may be something of
indifference to anything not of a visible or personally gratifying
nature. It is to thousands a far more amusing employment, as
also not exercising the powers of mind, to witness the extrava-
gancies of the Stage, or to take part in the hilarities of the Ball-
room, than to listen to the revelations of Science or to the descrip-
tions of Physical phenomena. Others may stand aloof, because
no material benefit is supposed to be derivable to themselves, or
because there is no sufficient motive. Perhaps there are always
comparatively few in any community who cultivate knowledge for
its own sake. The masses prefer ease of mind and bodily indul-
gence, or such advantages in life as may be agreeable to them, to
abstract studies which are wearisome and do not offer any appre-
ciable reward.

Even where material pecuniary profits are in prospect, there is
the same objection sometimes perceived.

This conclusion has been to a certain’ extent tested by the fact,
that the “Australian Society’? was devoted to “ Commerce (or
Manufactures) and Agriculture” as well as to Science and Arts.
That, at least, had intimate relations with the profitable employ-
ments of our fellow-colonists. The failure of that Society cannot,
therefore, be exclusively attributable to the abstruseness of sub-

Inaugural Address. 21

jects discussed, nor to want of sympathy with the direct advance-
ment ofthe community. A new Society solely devoted to Pastoral
and Agricultural pursuits has now been announced, and we shall
see how far it will succeed. Probably, it will not fare better than
the “ Agricultural and Horticultural Society” of 1833, which in
later years was succeeded by another of the same kind.

Of the officers of that first Agricultural as of the first Philoso-
phical Society, the only survivor is Alexander Berry, then Mem-
ber of Council.

Tt is certain that we must not anticipate success for ourselves
from persons whose leisure is generally given to the frivolities of
ephemeral excitement, or whose mental occupation is only exercised
by sensational novels or arailway literature. Anexcellent judge
of this question not long ago, in the hearing of some here present,
pointed out to the students of the University, that under the
effects of undue attraction in a wrong direction, the knowledge of
History, Poetry, and Polite Literature which formerly character-
ised the young people of our fatherland is rarely to be found
among the rising generation of the present day. Such being the
case, it becomes necessary to create a taste for these things and
for higher pursuits, before we can expect that support which our
lucubrations may deserve.

There may be also still another difficulty in our way. Mankind
is gregarious, and clans are not confined to Kelts alone. General
society in all nations is made up of clans, or “sets.’”’ This kind
of segregation, is well known even in our English Universities and
leading Associations at home; and it would not, therefore, be
surprising to find this influence in any gathering of men from the
mixed and amalgamated diversities of a Colonial population. But,
if this influence has operated within the bounds of our limited
horizon, it is probably owing rather to the diffidence of one class
than to the arrogance of another. There are many persons in
this community who could materially serve the objects of our
Society if they would only lay aside a want of confidence and tell
us what they have discovered in the way of mechanical or other
practical arts which they cultivate with success. We ought all
to be animated with a mutual desire to add as much as we can
(even if the much be really very little) to the common stock of
knowledge. Dissociationcanneverserve the purpose of Association.

22 Inaugural Address.

And, if really it is the case that any distinctions are kept up in
this room which militate against the well-being of the Society, it
would be better for them to be laid aside, especially as no men
are so little likely to forget the established relations of life as
those, of whatever class, whose habits of thought have been
nurtured by acquaintance with the order, distinctions, separate
relations and combinations observable in nature.

It is, however, only just to recollect, that a jealousy of this
kind has had no sanction from any proceedings which have come
under observation. We can point with great satisfaction to the
fact, that if not Patron, her Majesty’s Representative has always
been the President of our Society ; that one atleast of those high
officers of State has worked in common with us and has submitted
to us his own opinions for discussion; and that our present
Governor has frequently attended meetings where he has not been
always supported by the presence of those who ought to have
attended him ; and what is most significant, not one single contri-
bution has been received from any member of the Society whose
skill in art or mechanical contrivance would have gained him a
hearty welcome, evenif he be otherwise little known in social life.

It has been considered right to say so much on an unwelcome
topic, in order to remove, if possible, a similar prejudice to that
which once occasioned injury to the Institution in whose Hall we
are now assembled, and which, if not met in a fair and candid
way, may do injury to our cause.

This prejudice cannot, however, have any bearing on the reserve
and distance of those highly educated men who, Members of
of British Universities and of contemporaneous Associations, might
have been supposed to have already gathered around a Society —
of this kind, as the friendly encouragers, if not the active instru-
ments of its success.

Leaving these differences to follow their own course, it is to be
feared, from the indications furnished to us, that unless a new
spirit be infused, we must resign ourselves to the inevitable
destiny of an unpopular Institution.

This ought, nevertheless, not to paralyse the exertions of our-
selves in endeavouring to extend our field of usefulness; nor should
it deprive those who are attached to our designs, of the pleasure
which they themselves have found in turning their thoughts,

Inaugural Address. 23

occasionally, for atime, from the every-day labours of professional
employment to objects of a higher and more ennobling kind.
Let no worker in this Association ever forget the words of Milton,
which I once before quoted in this room on a less public occasion
than the present—“ Let me fit audience find, though few!”

If this Society, as constituted, is doomed to experience no
great patronage and no universal sympathy, if the mass of those
whose intelligence and capabilities, sagacity and acquirements,
would be useful to us, prefer to withdraw from our fellowship, we
must be content to remain a small, but we may still hope, a zealous
body, anxious to turn to account for the public good such oppor-
tunities as may be afforded us.

Whilst not “ wise above what is written,” but humble searchers
into the ways of Providence, we must be content to contemplate
and examine the material things which we are allowed to explore ;
and, with an earnest wish to discharge the important duty which
every man owes to his brother, we must, so faras in us lies, en-
deavour to point out that he also has his assigned position in the
Universe, since every thing proves design and skill and universal
goodness in the Creator, and nothing that is created is without
an appropriate use and office.

Keeping this in mind, we shall not go far astray. The theories
of such Philosophers as tell us, that “ the material heavens do not
declare the glory of God, but only the glory of Hipparchus,
Kepler, and Newton,” (which is the assertion of that Philosopher
of the present day whose system is praised as perfect,) will have
no influence on such as believe that man is not descended from
brutes to whom reason was not given, but was “formed in the image
of God,” and will warn us agamst endeavouring to prove God to be
only the image of ourselves. These will admit that all our merely
human inquiries must in the end be found insufficient and vain,
because no finite mind can comprehend ine Infinite mind or find
out God to perfection.

This being the aim of Philosophy, let us content ourselves with
less presumptuous objects. Let us perform our own proper work,
not caring whether we ever arrive at complete knowledge of the
methods by which the Universe was formed and perfected—by
which light is produced—how solid matter has resulted from
gases—how attraction and repulsion are mutually balanced—how

24 Inaugural Address.

elementary substances proportionably combine—how the marvels
of crystallisation are brought about—or what is that light-
ning which we compel to bear our messages, as fleet as time
through the air and under the ocean—because these things
are beyond our grasp, and we cannot fathom with our scanty line
of intellect the unfathomable depths of the All-providing and the
All-wise. Our province lies on the outer boundaries of the region
to which only partial success is permitted, but where there 1s yet
sufficient to exercise our faculties and to occupy our attention.

Nor need we vex ourselves with the disputings of those who
affirm that the works of the Creator contradict His word.

If human Philosophy, as is averred by those who know it best,
is itself vain, leading nowhere but to antagonism with Theistic
doctrine, it will be of little purpose to have pursued its logical
processes except as an exercise of the mind, or as schooling it for
higher enterprises than such doubtful disputations. Applied in
another way they might be enabled to declare what we may
firmly believe is truth, that there may be found in the works of na-
ture by those who seek for it, a New revelation concordant with the
Old. This is, no doubt, denied by some eminent writers of this
time; e. g. Sir W. Hamilton, but we may, nevertheless, be per-
mitted to believe it possible. A flood of light is streaming in
uponus from every quarter—discoveries in all the branches of
Physical Science, crowd upon us without reserve ; and at the same
time Traditionary history, and the records in which Antiquity
found its consolation and hope, are being canvassed with an un-
sparing criticism that frequently puts “darkness for ight and
light for darkness.’ The Laws of Nature, as they are called, are
set up as infallible and unchanging. And in this way the practical
duties of religion, as well as the time-honoured belief of man-
kind are put in danger of extinction. But the study of the
Universe, though it expands out views, ought also to limit our
speculations respecting it. It should teach us to await with
patience still further revelations of things concealed in the abysses
of Creation. And, although it may seem urfair to some to seek
illustration from such a source, yet, if we go to the writings of
One who was more than a match for the Philosophers of Greece,
we shall find that he declares the things seen are manifestations of
the Unseen, and by them he refutes the doctrines of such as

Tnaugural Address. 95

denied the personal agency of One Universal First Cause. The
fallacious reasonings relating to the Laws of Nature must event-
ually give-way to a better system of interpretation than now
widely prevails; for even the author of the “ Vestiges of Creation”
admits that they are but “the mode of action of the ever present
and sustaining God,” and one day, we need not doubt, these laws
will be understood as the expression of His will.

In adopting these views, and in expressing these opinions, there
- is no intention to ignore the minutest facts that are brought for-
ward by observers, nor the significancy of the testimonies that
are being daily disentombed from the sepulchral archives of Time
and Nature. The question is not of the existence of phenomena,
such as those for instance which are made to bear on the epoch
of man’s appearance on the earth, but of the application of them.
Nor is there objection to the statement of arguments relating to
the Origin of Species, or the observations on which these argu-
ments are based. Yetwe ought not to be accused of nervousness
as to the fate of Scripture, if we would wait for further evidences
or for wider ranges of experiment. It may serve to express more
clearly what is intended by these remarks, if we refer to the
striking words of the present Dean of Canterbury :—“ Nor has
the Bible any reason to fear the utmost activity and the furthest
extension of such pursuits. We have been, I am persuaded, too
timid and anxious in this mattter. Let research and inquiry be
carried forward in every direction and in a fearless spirit: and
when their results are most completely established and firmly
assured to us, then will it most undeniably be found, that Creation,
Providence, and Revelation are the work of the same God :—then
will the plainest light be thrown on the meaning of Holy Scrip-
ture, on all points on which such research and inquiry bear.”

Should we meet with difficulties in such inquiry, let us remember
the words of the great English reasoner, Bishop Butler, who
urges that “he who believes the Scriptures to have proceeded
from Him who is the Author of Nature, may well expect to find
the same sort of difficulties in them as are found in the constitution
of Nature.”’

If from these testimonies of logical theologians we turn once
more to that of the Historian of Mental Philosophy, we shall be
reminded that the state of Philosophy is very much akin in one

D

26 Inaugural Address.

respect to the state of Sectarianism, each sect refusing to admit
the doctrines of the rest. “ Look,” he says, “at the state of
Philosophy. There is noonephilosophy universally accepted: there
are as many philosophies as there are speculative critics, almost
as many as there are professors. The dogmas of Germany are
held as the dreams of alchemists in England and Scotland; the
psychology of Scotland is laughed at in Germany, and neglected
in England and France. Besides this general dissidence we see,
in France and Germany at least, great opposition between
Religion and Philosophy pronounced or openly signalised.”

Now hear his final conclusion: “This opposition is inevitable ;
it liesin the very nature of philosophy.’’*

Gentlemen, I have, I hope, now justified to you all I said of
the little benefit it was to usto remain as a mere Philosophical
Society.

In conclusion, whilst offering my apology for the length to
which this Address has extended, I would crave your further
patience for a few practical remarks.

We have seen that our province is not in the mysterious
labyrinth of mental speculation. We need not, therefore, trouble
ourselves with any questions of that class. We have before us
in this Colony a vast region, much of which is still untrodden
ground. We have, as it were, a new heaven for Astronomy and
a new earth for Geology. We have climatical conditions of the
Atmosphere, which are not to be viewed by us merely as pheno-
mena interesting to the Meteorologist. We have facts to accu-
mulate relating to Droughts and Floods which have a deep
financial and social importance. We have a superficial area
which may engage the attention of Surveyors, Agriculturists,
and Engineers for years to come. We have unrevealed magazines
of mineral wealth in which Chemists and Miners may find
employment for ages after we shall all have mingled with our
parent earth.

All that we have to trouble ourselves with, is the right inter-
pretation and development of these physical riches, so bountifully
spread around and beneath us for our investigation and use.

In such investigations there are rules which we should observe
and follow.

*Biogr. Hist. of Phil., iv., 246

Inaugural Address. 27

We must strive to discern clearly, understand fully, and report
faithfully ; to love truth in things physical as in things moral ; to
abjure hasty theories and unsupported conjectures ; where we are
in doubt, not to be positive ; to give our brother observer the same
measure of credit we take to ourselves; not striving for mastery,
but leaving time for the formation of the judgment which will
inevitably be given, whether for or against us, by those who come
after us; contented if we are able to add but one grain to that
enduring pyramid which is now in course of erection as the testi-
_ mony of Nature to the truth of Revelation.

Tf in this spirit we make progress, in this way our own mental
enjoyment will be increased.

It is a work not only suitable to a Society of humble-minded
men who profess to unite for this very end; but, if carried on
earnestly, charitably, with simplicity and faithfulness, is one worthy
not only of Royal Patronage, but of Universal Encouragement.

Arr. I.—On “ Non-Linear Coresolvents,’ by the Honourable Chief
Justice CocKuE, F.R.S., President of the Queensland Philoso-
phical Society.

[Read before the Society, 7th August, 1867, by Martin Gardiner, Esq., C.E. ]

1. Let y denote the root of a quartic whereof the coefficients are
regarded as functions of a variable x and let p and q respectively
denote the first and second differential coefficients of y with
respect to x, so that

Bh a a Bait! a Ds

Fe a Wee paisa MYolelictatercveloiateve’ (1, 2)
also let

PRB EN VM Jee LM DLS ab (3)

28 On Non-Linear Coresolvents.

and form the function F supposed to be such that
H—@+2Gp+A Pog bp + 23 2p - Bee
and wherein the multipliers a, A, 6, 3, and B are indeterminate.

2. We know that p, g and P can be expressed as rational funce-
tions of y, and by the theory of equations we also know that p,
g, and P, and, consequently, IF can be expressed as rational and
entire functions of integral powers of y, none of which transcends
the third power. We are therefore at liberty to write

NY? ee Le ct) oie Oe eee (5)
where A, #, v, and p, are linear functions of a, A, b, 8, and B.
By means of the four conditions

N= 10, [0 — 108) = 0p ome (6, 7,8
eliminate four of the indeterminate multipliers, say ts 6, (3, and
B from the dexter of (4). Then, these four conditions causing
F to vanish, we have a result which we may write,

7 + 2(ap +CP)¢g+Dp?+2EPp+H P? =o...(10)
and in which ©, D, EH, and H are now to be regarded as functions
of the coefficients of the quartic and of the uneliminated inde-
terminate a. It will be remarked that this indeterminate a only
enters linearly into C, D, E, and H.

3. Put (10) under the form
(qt+ap+ CP)? = ame ae + 2 (a C—E)
Pip = (C2 A) be oo ins tenon ct edn noo neneee (11)

then the dexter of (11) will be a perfect square if

(a2 — D) (C?— H) = @C— LH)? ...... (12)
that is to say, if

DH—#H—C?D= EF? —2aCE...(18)
But (13) isa cubic in a. Determining a so as to satisfy it, and
then extracting the square root of either side of (11) we have

a)
gtap+R=* { V@—D) p + Fo == Pt ap

whence we may obtain an equation which I shall write
ge ie a Peat ee eee (15)

4, Had the equation in y been a cubic instead of a quartic, we
might have dispensed with the term). y of F. Thus we should
have had for the solution of (18) two disposable indeterminates,
say a and 4, in place of a only, and in such case (18) would have
been capable of taking the form

N (a? + 30a? +3Ma)=NQ saa (16)
wherein N is free from 4, and é enters L linearly and M and Q
to the second and third degr ees respectively. Now if we use the
arbitrary quantity 6 for the purpose of satisfying the condition

Mase (17)

a

On Non-Linear Ooresolvents. 29

which is a quadratic in 6 then (16) after division by N may be
put under the form

(Fa Se Oe eae aston eae aaa 18
and the determination of a depends on the extraction of a cube
root only.

5. It follows that by solving a quadratic and extracting a cube
root, the solution of a cubic may be connected with that of a non-
linear differential resolvent of the form (15), and that by solving
a cubic, the solution of a quartic may be made to depend upon a
similar differential resolvent.

6. Replacing P in (15) by its value as given in (8) equation
(15) becomes

2
Gh, SET tS Fe ig Genera Mad (19)
assume y = efvdz then
payngay + yw pcdo0adu000e (20, 21)

whence, substituting these values in (19) and dividing the result
by y, we have

H+lut+ G+ Dv =o tee (22)
x
or, dividing by «?
Se ey ey ee oe a (23)
uw da wu
Hence, if
eds a eee ae (24, 25)

u

equation (23) becomes
a yh ele ps a (26)
dx

a linear differential equation of the first order in v.

7. Thus in the case of cubics and biquadratics we have, through
a non-linear, been conducted to a linear differential resolvent, the
latter being, moreover, of the first order only. At a meeting of
the Queensland Philosophical Society, held on Monday, July 30th,
1866, I read a Paper “ On the Inverse Problem of Coresolvents,”
which was printed in the Queensland Daily Guardian of Tuesday,
August 7th, 1866, and in which, after calling attention to the
theoretical possibility of determining the foregoing resolvents, I
suggested that further results might spring from the study of
non-linear differential resolvents. Some three months ago I sent
to England a Paper in which I pointed out certain conditions
which, when satisfied, enable us by means of a non-linear differ-
ential resolvent, to obtain a linear differential resolvent of a
quintic which is of the third order only. By the last (April 1867)

30 On Non-Linear Coresolvents.

English Mail I transmitted what I believe will be found to be the
most general mode of determining whether a proposed differential
equation admits of finite solution, that is to say, of solution by
means of indefinite integrals. My process applies successfully
to the results obtained by Boole in the Philosophical Transactions
for 1864.

“ Oakwal,” near Brisbane, Queensland, Australia,

Tuesday, April 23rd, 1867.

Art. I1—The Vertebrata of Tasmania, recent and fossil by
Gerard Krefft, FLS., CILZS., &c., §c., Curator and Secre-
tary of the Australian Museum.

[Read before the Society, 4th September, 1867.]

With much interest I have perused Mr. 8. H. Wintle’s paper:
“ A visit to the bone caves of Glenorchy” published in the first
number of the “Colonial Monthly Magazine” at Melbourne and
Sydney, in September 1867, and with greater interest, I have care-
fully examined the mammalian remains collected there on which I
now report to the Council of the Royal Society of New South
Wales as follows :—

All the bones submitted to me for inspection belonged to two
species of Marsupial animals siill living in abundance on the
island—one the large Wallaby or Brush Kangaroo (Halmaturus
bennettii)—the other the Sooty Opossum or Phalanger (Phalan-
gista fuliginosa) and I have numbered these fragments from 1 to
45, in order that they may easily be identified.

Hatmaturvus BENNETTII.

1. Portion of skull, left side, with the ear-bone and part of
Zygoma. ;

2. Right ramus, lower jaw, with molar-like premolar and four
molars, the last just cutting through.

. Right ramus, lower jaw of another individual, with teeth in
the same condition.

. Another lower jaw as the one before.

. Another, somewhat more fractured,

or

The Vertebrata of Tasmania. 31

6. The left ramus of an aged individual, with perfect dentition.
The premolar is about being shed, the first and second
molars are very much worn, but the last two still show
the folds of the crown. The Halmaturus bennettii is
the largest of the “ Wallabies,” and in its size and habits
much resembles the true Kangaroos; lke Macropus
major the permanent premolar is not retained till old age
but is shed soon after the last molar has come into use.

7. The right ramus of the upper jaw of another aged individual
with much worn teeth

74. First dorsal vertebra.

8. The fifth lumbar vertebra.

9. The third caudal vertebra.

10. A lumbar vertebra much fractured.

11. The tenth aileran

12. The sere poate ers yen

13. The fifth

14. The last lumbar vertebra of a half grown animal.
15. The third

15a. Last dorsal.

16. Portion of the right scapula of a very large animal.
17. Right humerus of do.

18. Portion of the left humerus.

19 Right radius of a very large subject.

20. Left radius of a large animal.

21. Right ulna.

22. Left ulna.

23. Fractured right ulna.

ae Three ribs.

27. Left os. innominatum.
28. Right os. (fractured)
29. Portion of left wee en

30. Portion of vee OS none

32. Left femur.

34, Shaft of right femur.

34, Right tibia.

35. The same bone fractured.

36. Shaft of a right tibia.

37. The same.

38. and 39. Proximal portions of left tibia with part of shaft.
40. Left metatarsal bone.

41. and 42. Right metatarsal bone.

43. Shaft of a left fibula.

44. Left os calcis.

32 The Vertebrata of Tasmania.

PHALANGISTA FULIGINOSA.
45. Portion of left femur.

These bones are no doubt of considerable age, but they cannot be
termed “fossil” and if the examination of these caves is con-
tinued, remains of animals in a fossil state may yet be found.

Similar caves in New South Wales have yielded numerous fossil
- and other remains, some of which belong to animals now extinct,
others, as those of the Thylacine and Sarcophilus at present re-
stricted to Tasmania, and a few are referrable to still living species.
Remains of the Dingo, of rats and mice, and of birds and small
reptiles are also met with in the limestone caverns of this colony,
and fresh discoveries will no doubt be made whenever these
deposits (both here and in Tasmania) are thoroughly examined.

Being in a position to give a correct account of nearly all the
vertebrata inhabiting Tasmania, I will now enumerate the animals
found there.

Without the Whales common to our coast, the following species
were collected for the Trustees of the Australian Museum by Mr.
George Masters.

PLACENTALIA,

Producing their young in a perfect state and having no pouch or
skin-fold for their protection :—

Ll Camis ing 0. 28 eee asa ae, eee The Dingo, (now extinct).

2. Arctocephalus lobatus............ The Cowled Seal.

3. Stenorhynchus leptonyx ......... Sea Leopard.

4. Vespertilio tasmaniensis......... Tasmanian Bat.

5. Scotophilus microdon ............ Small-toothed Bat.

6. Nyctophilus unicolor.............- Long-eared Bat.

7. Hydromys chrysogaster........... Golden-bellied Beaver Rat.

8. Mus tasmaniensis—(Kr.,) a new species of land-rat dis-

covered by Mr. George Masters, on the banks of the
Ouse River. Except this rat, all the animals mentioned
are also found in Victoria and New South Wales.
IMPLACENTALIA.
Producing their young ina very imperfect state and having a
pouch or skin-fold for their protection.
Section 1L—Warsupialia.
Womapar Fanity.

Phascolomys wombat ............... The Tasmanian Wombat.
Kanearoo FAMILY.
Halmaturus bennettii .............4. Bennett’s Kangaroo.

Halmaturus billardieri ............ Tasmanian Wallaby.
Macropus major 22.02.).0s.o.02225- Great or Common Kangaroo.

The Vertebrata of Tasmania. 33

Bettongia cuniculus............ Tasmanian Bettong.
Hypsiprymnus apicalis......... Tasmanian Rat-Kangaroo.

Baypicoor Famity.
Perameles gunnit ............ Gunn’s Perameles.

PHALANGER F'AMILy.
Phalangista fuliginosa ...... Black or Sooty Opossum.

Phalangista vulpina ......... Common Opossum.
Phalangista viverrina ...... Ring-tail Opossum.
Dromicia ghriformis......... Thick-tailed Dromicia.

Dasyure Famity.
Antechinus swainsonit ...... Swainson’s Antechinus.
Dasyurus viverrinus ......... Common Dasyure or Native-Cat.
Dasyurus maculatus ......... Spotted-tailed Dasyure or Tiger-Cat.
Sarcophilus wrsinus ......... Tasmanian Devil, } (fossil in N.S.
Thylacinus cynocephalus...... Tasmanian Tiger, Wales.)

Section I1—WMonotremata.

Ornithorhynchus anatinus...Duck-billed Platypus.
Hehidna setosa ........0.2..+. Hairy Echidna.

A second species of Thylacine recently obtained by Mr. Mas-
ters, and which I have described in the Proceedings of the
Zoological Society of London as Thylacinus breviceps, must be
added to this list.

This is a smaller animal with a shorter head, and much larger
teeth than the 7. cynocephalus, and was well known to many of
the old residents of Van Dieman’s Land who distinguished the
two kinds, so Mr. Masters assures me, by the popular names of
Grey-hound and Bull-dog Tigers.

Peculiar to the island are the following mammals :—

The Tasmanian Wombat

Bennett’s Kangaroo.

The Tasmanian Rat Kangaroo.

Gunn’s Bandicoot.

The Sooty Phalanger.

‘Thick-tailed Dromicia.

The Tasmanian “ Devil.”

The two “Tigers”; and

The Hairy Echidna or Porcupine Anteater.
With the exception of the “Devil” and “Tigers” all have
closely allied representatives on the mainland.

A colder climate always modifies species more or less, and we
find the Mammals of Tasmania generally more robust, of larger
size, and provided with thicker and darker fur, than those inhab-
iting New Holland. In the structure, however, of the skull and

E

34 The Vertebrata of Tasmama.

teeth, but little difference, (except in size,) is observable in Tas-
manian specimens when compared with continental ones. Com-
paring the fauna of Tasmania with that of the Australian mainland,
we arrive at the following result.

The Dingo is extinct,—the Seals and Whales are the same as
on our own coast. The insect fauna of the island not being very
rich, there are but few insect-feeding bats, three species only
are known to our twenty or more Cheiroptera. For similar reasons
(the absence of indigenous fruits) no Flying-foxes occur, though
if these marauders once found out the richness of Tasmanian
plantations, they would soon wing their way across the Straits,

The peculiar Australian Rodent, the Water-rat, or Beaver-rat,
is represented by a single species to five on the mainland. Some
four or five and twenty other rats and mice are known to
inhabit Australia, and only one kind Tasmania. The marsupial
order is richer, ‘but here again many species common to our
south coast are missing. There are but three Halmaturi,
while some forty species inhabit the continent.

Our ten or twelve “ Kangaroo-Rats”’ and “Bettongs,” have
two representatives in Tasmania, both of which, curious to say,
resemble in a most remarkable degree two West Australian
species, so much so, that the one can “only be distinguished from
the other by a close comparison of their skeletons.

One would naturally conclude that a mountainous island like
Tasmania, would be the very paradise of “ Rock- Wallabies,” but
none are found there. The absence of the “Koala,” or Native
Bear, and of all the species of “Flying Phalangers,’ common
in Victoria, is also unaccountable, the more so as the allied
“ Phalangers,” better known as “ Brush and Ring-tail Opossums,”
which subsist on similar food and live in the same forests, thrive
well, and attain a great size in that Island.

The small marsupial insectivora ailied to the genera Podabrus
and Antechinus, are represented in the latter by a single species,
though probably a second kind exists, as I received a new form
from one of the islands of Bass’ Straits not long ago, which is
perhaps also found in Tasmania.

The predominance of the large carnivora over all other animals.
is most likely the cause of so limited a number of species; it is
highly probable that many more kinds of Kangaroos once existed,
and that they have been exterminated by the ferocious “ Tigers ”
and “ Deyils’”’ still plentiful in some of the wild districts ; “if SO,
their remains will tell whenever the bone-caverns are explored.

The monotremous ‘section of the Jmplacentalia is represented
as in Australia, by the well known Platypus, and by an Echidna
or Ant-eater which appears to differ from our own in nothing but
the shorter spines and more hairy fur.

The Vertebrata of Tasmania. 35
The birds observed amount to one hundred and sixty-two
species, as follows:

ORDER—RAPTORES.
Famity FALconip2.

AQUala QUdae Foie ce sit cee vr cenens Eagle Hawk.
Ichthyaétus leucogaster............... White-bellied Sea Eagle.
Pandion leucocephalus.............4. White-headed Osprey.
Falco melanogenys 1.0.00... 6.060000 Blacked-cheeked Falcon.
Falco lunulatus .......2. 25s. se0eee White-fronted Falcon.
Eieracidea berigora .........:....-.+- Brown Hawk.
Astur nove holland@ ............... New Holland Goshawk.
AStur approxiMaN .....0....6.00000 Australian Goshawk.
Aceupiter torquatus ...... 0.2.2. 0.15.. Collared Sparrowhawk.
CUCUS ASSMUMIS..... 0... sen ee eee ce nee: Allied Harrier.

Faminy Srrieip2.
SUID COSLANODS. . is scevcineenscecae oat Chesnut-faced Owl.
Athene maculata ....... yee a Spotted Owl.

ORDER—INCESSORES.
Famity CaPRIMULGID®.

Aigotheles nove-hollandia ......... Little Morepork.
Podargus CUVICre ...... 00. sce see veeees Morepork.
Famity HIRvNnDINIDz.
Acanthylis caudacuta ...........4.4. Spine-tailed Swallow.
Hirundo frontalis ...........0065. .. Welcome Swallow.
Collocalia arborea ....1,...:..0004s Tree Swallow.
Faminty ALCEDINID2.
Aleyone diemensis............ 02. ..0004 Tasmanian Kingfisher.
Famity ARTAMID2&.
ATtamMmUs SOTHIGUS..........00000c0005- Wood Swallow.
Faminy AMPHLIDS.
Pardalotus punctatus ............... Diamond-bird.
Pardalowus GfiNis. 20.60 cece esses Allied Diamond-bird.
Famity Lantap@.
Strepera fuliginosa ...............-.- Sooty Crow-Shrike.
SAR GPU LLCS EOS PRO SEARO Hill Crow-Shrike.
Gymnorhina organica ............... Tasmanian Crow-Shrike.
Cracticus cimereus.........-...0+1.2:.. Cinereous Crow-Shrike.
Famity CaMPEPHAGINE.
Graicalus parvirostris ...........6... Tasmanian Graicalus.
Pachycephala glaucura ............ Grey-tailed Thickhead.
Pachycephala olwacea............... Native Thrush.

Colluricincla selbit .....0.0.1c000000 Whistling Dick,

36 The Vertebrata of Tasmania.

Famity Muscrcarmé.

Rhipidura albiscapa......ssccceees- White-shafted Fantail.
Kaminy SaxIcoLips.
Erythrodryas rhodinogaster.......+. Pink-breasted Wood Robin
Petroica multicolor .......2.......+++ Scarlet-breasted Robin.
CU OUCH PRCRICEE tah eee sae Flame-breasted Robin.
ECUOUCU USCOR p38. rik) eae eases: Dusky Robin.
Famity Marnurm. ?
Malurus longicaudus ...-........... Blue Wren.
Stipiturus malachurus...............Hmeu Wren.
Sericornis humilis ...........+...+++ Sombre Sericornis.
Acanthiza diemensis................-. Tasmanian Acanthiza.
ACANEMIZA MAGNA ......6.0csecevec ees Great Acanthiza.
Acanthiza chrysorrhea ............ Yellow-rumped Acanthiza.
Calamanthus fuliginosus............ Striated Calamanthus.
Famity Moractntip.
Anthus australis ............0.0.0+2+- Australian Pipit.
Spheneacus gramineus ............ Tawny Grass-bird.
Famity FRINGILLIDA.
Estrelda, bella iro. oncen ees Fire-tail
Faminy Merrvripz.
Cinclosoma punctata..........0. 6.0645 Spotted-Grained Thrush.
Oreocincla lunulata......... 0.0 ccc.0 Mountain Thrush.
Famity Corvin.
Corvus australis. ..........002eeeceees White-eyed Crow.
Famity MELIPHAGIDA.
Meliphaga nove hollandie ......... New Holland Honey-eater.
Meliphaga australasiana ............ Tasmanian Honey-eater.
Glyciphila fulvifrons ............... Fulvous-fronted Honey-eater.
Pitilotis flavigula .......0..06.20 0.000 Yellow-throated Honey-eater,
Anthoch@ratmaurus.........000.000. Wattle Bird.
Authochera mellivora ..........6.+++ Brush Wattle-bird.
Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris...... Cobbler’s Awl.

Strong-billed Honey-eater
or Cherry-picker.
Melithreptus melanocephalus ...... Black-headed Honey-eater.

Melithreptus validirostris

Myzantha garrula .........0.c.c0 Miner.

Zosterops cerulescens .......0.0.0.0 Grey-backed Zosterops.
Faminy CucuLipe.

Cuculus imornatus .......0.0...00.0 Plain Cuckoo.

Cuculus cimeraceus .......6...0c0e ee Grey Cuckoo.

Ohrysococeya lucidus........seccecees Bronze Cuckoo.

The Vertebrata of Tasmania. 37

Famity PsitTracip™.

Cocatua galerite ccc. ccvicccbe cece Common Cockatoo.
Calyptorhynchus xanthonotus ...... Black Cockatoo.
Callocephalon galeatum ............ Gang Gang Cockatoo.
Platycercus flaviventris ......... .. Green Parrot.

Platycercus CLUMIUS......... 0.000000 Rose Hill Parrakeet or Rosella
Euphema chrysostoma ..........: .....Blue-banded Grass-Parrakeet.
Euphema aurantia...........cee ee Orange-bellied Grass-Parrakeet
Pezoporus fOrMOSUS...... 20.000 0e eee Swamp Parrakeet.

Lathamus discolor .........0.c.0008- Swift Parrakeet.

Trichoglossus swainsonit ............ Blue Mountain Parrakeet.
Trichoglossus concinnus ............ Musk Parrakeet.
Trichoglossus pusillus ....... sisal gi Small Parrakeet.

ORDER—RBRASORES.
Famity CoLUMBIDA.

Phaps chaleoptera@ .............00+s- Common Bronze-wing.
EPUOPS CLOG AUS oooh cc ireieonithen ess .0s Brush Bronze-wing.
Famity TuRNICIDa.
UTE COTUB oe Men ct seu rents Painted Quail.
Famity PERDIcIDa.
Coturia pectoralis......0...0.1.0.5.05- Pectoral Quail, Stubble Quail
Synotcus australis... 00.6.0 c0.c000s- Brown Quail.
Synoicus diemensis ..........0.04. ... Tasmanian Partridge.

ORDER—GRALLATORES.
Famity StRuTHIONIDA.

Dromaius nove hollandia ......... Emu.
Famity CHARADRIDZ.

Hematopus longirostris............ White-breasted Oyster-catcher
Hematopus fuliginosus ............ Black Oyster-catcher.
Sarciophorus pectoralis ............ Black-breasted Plover.
Squatarola helvetica... ........0.0605. Grey Plover, or Sand Piper.
Charadrius orientalis ............... Golden Plover.
Hiaticula monacha .......0ceee... 00: Hooded Dottrel.
Hiaticwla ruficapilla..............0055 Red-capped Dottrel.
Miaticula inornata .....:..........5- Allied Dottrel.
Hiaticula bicinata..........0..0 00000: Double-banded Dottrel.

Famity RECURVIROSTRIDA.
Recurvirostra rubricollis............ Red-necked Avocet.

Limosa wropygiauis ..... ccc cccvaves, Barred-rumped Godwit.

38 The Vertebrata of Tasmania.

Famity TRINGID».

Scheniclus australis.............0004- Marsh Tringa. -
Scheniclus subtorquatus ............ Curlew Sandpiper.
Scheniclus albescens ...........0... Little Sandpiper.
Strepsilas interpres ......... 200.0000: Turnstone.
Famity ScoLopacip2.
Gallinago australis ........0100.1000- New Holland Snipe.
Famity TanraLipa.
Numenius australis .........0.. 0.0.6 Australian Curlew.
Famity ARDEID®.
Ardea nove-holland@ .............+. Blue Crane.
Botaurus australis .......0. 0.000600. Australian Bittern.
Famitx Rati.
Porphyrio melanotus ............+4. Red-bill.
Pribonyx mortierti .........2.+.00++- Native Hen.
Rallis lewintt 2 rin. eeec sets Lewin’s Rail.
Porzana flwmimea...... 1.0.00... 00000. Spotted Water Crake.
Porzana palustris wc. scese0s..00s-0 Little Water Crake.
Porzanaimmaculata ...........0.0000s Little Swamp Hen.

ORDER—NATATORES.
Famity ANATIDA.

Cy gms atratus. viii dic ccecees coun et Black Swan.
Cereopsis nove-hollandie............ Cape Barren Goose.
Casarca tadornoides..............0+4- Mountain Duck.
ANAS SUPETCUIOSE .......0c ces eeseeeees Black Duck.
Anas punctate aR SE: Teal.
Spatula rhynchotis ...............++- Shoveller.
Malacorhynchus membranaceus ...Pink-eyed Duck.
Nyroca-australis ......:001..ccccceee. White-winged Duck.
Biztra lobater 6... ois stesso cots osiden: Musk Duck.
Famiry Larwa,

Dir us PACifitus cc cacccecovceesoeene Pacific Gull.
XEMG JAMESON 20.00... . eee eeeeunes Jameson’s Gull.
DLestris cattaractes ....5-.2....-..2 Spua Gull.
Sylochelidon strenuses ............... Caspian Tern.
Thalasseus poliocercus ..........4.... Bass’ Straits Tern.
Sterua Qracwag 1... 0.028 2+ oaceaee Graceful Tern.
Stemula neraig et. oe ese Little Tern.

FamrILy PROCELLARID2.
Diomedea exulans..........0..0..cc0e- Wandering Albatros.
Diomedea cattta ............00. seen Shy Albatros.

Didmedea culminata.......ccccceccees Culminated Albatros.

The Vertebrata of Tasmania. 39

Diomedea chlororhynchos............ Yellow-nosed Albatros.
Diomedea melanophrys.........06.... Black-eyebrowed Albatros.
Diomedea fuliginosa...... 2.0.6. ..004. Sooty Albatros.
Procellaria guganted......... 6000.00. Giant Petrel.
Procellaria conspicillata ............ Spectacled Petrel
Procellaria hasitata..............6.5. Great Grey Petrel.
Procellaria macroptera ..........4. Great Winged Petrel.
Procellaria atlantica .........0...4. Atlantic Petrel.
Procellaria solanderit ............... Solander’s Petrel.
Procellaria leucocephala ............ White-headed Petrel.
PPTOCEW ETE MOUS. 0... 2.2n eee. cent 08: Soft-plumaged Petrel.
Procellaria lewcoptera ...........004. White-winged Petrel.
eocellarua COOK ii men ©. seer. ads: Cook’s Petrel.
Procellaria coerulea ........000..0000s Blue Petrel.
Procellaria glacialoides ............ Silvery-grey Petrel.
Puffinus brevicaudatus.............4: Short-tailed Petrel.
Daption capensis 0.32.4. .16- ede .Cape Pigeon.
IM ONILUTLIN Enc eioce he aot anaes Whale Bird.
DeILON SOFIE OS eR eee LAS Fairy Whale Bird.
BIMIOMTOAIESUN Nn ete eset 8 85 22 Bank’s Whale Bird.
TOM VUCLOLULS, Pee. ees ea a aan Broad-billed Whale Bird.
Thalassidroma nerets .......+...+++ Grey-backed Storm Petrel.
Thalassidroma wilsontt ............ Wilson’s Storm Petrel.
Thalassidroma melanogaster......... Black-bellied Storm Petrel.
Vhalassidroma leucogaster ......... White-bellied Storm Petrel.
Pufinuria wrinatrig.... 2... oss. 010: Diving Petrel.

Famity PELicanip2.
Pelecanus conspicillatus ............ Australian Pelican.
Phatacrocoraz nove-hollandie...... Australian Cormorant.
Phalacrocorax leucogaster ......... White-breasted Cormorant.
Phalacrocorax melanoleueus ...... Little Cormorant.
UMC: CUSIGON ISIDORE. nates ease cox Australian Gannet.

ROMICCHS CALSUROLUS! «aan eon een esa Diver

Podiceps poliocephalus..........+..:. Grey-headed Diver.

Podiceps quarts ~ .i57. vise. .n20-- Black-throated Diver.
Famity SPHENISCIDZ.

Eudyptes chrysocome ............... Crested Penguin.

PHEMECUS MINOT. 0.2 .iceu+ 2-2-2: Little Penguin.

Spheniseus undind ......0.....+00+- Fairy Penguin.

Of the above list, forty-three are roaming sea birds, only twenty-
six kinds are peculiar to the island, and six of these are very
doubtful species, so that we cannot put down more than twenty
birds, so limited is their habitat.

40 The Vertebrata of Tasmania.

The most interesting of them are the large Gill-bird, Antho-
chera inauris; the Tasmanian Parrakeet, Platycercus flaviventris ;
the large Quail, Synoicus diemensis; and the great Water-hen,
Tribonyx mortiert.

The reptiles, as might be expected from a cold climate, are
few in number. I do not think that Tasmania furnishes more
than two or three species to the Australian fauna. The well
known Hiunlia whiter, the peculiar Omolepida casuarine, a Gram-
matophora, two small species of Hiunlie, and a Cyclodus, (Cyclodus
nigroluteus) allied to our “ Sleeping Lizard,” are all the saurians
known to exist there.

No tortoise inhabits the Tasmanian streams. Snakes abound,
but the number of species is limited to two highly venomous
kinds, and a small one, venomous but not dangerous. Not a
single innocuous snake has as yet been discovered.

All the snakes belong to the peculiar Australian genus Hoplo-
cephalus, and are local varieties of continental forms. They
go under different names in Tasmania however, such as “ Black
Snake,” “ Carpet Snake,” and “ Diamond Snake.”

The first two are varieties of our “ Brown-banded Snake,” Hoplo-
cephalus curtus, and named “ Black Snake” if of a dark color ;
and “ Carpet Snake,” if light, with the cross-bands visible. The
Museum is indebted to Mr. Masters for a fine series of both, and
having taken thirty-five young (some black, and some with visible
cross-bands) from the same mother, the identity of both is
sufficiently proved.

The term “ Carpet Snake” is not well chosen, and leads to
frequent mistakes here and in Tasmania, as our own “ Carpet
Snake,” (Morelia variegata,) belongs to the Python tribe and is
not venomous.

The second dangerous snake is Hoplocephalus superbus, the
“Ticer Snake” of Victoria, known to Tasmanians as the
“ Diamond Snake,” another popular name which leads to confusion
if we bear in mind that the “ Diamond Snake’’ (Morelia spilotes)
of the south-eastern coast of New South Wales is a membér
of the Python family and harmless.

The third yenomous snake is the Hoplocephalus coronoides, or
“ Black-bellied Suake,’ of small size and wide range. This
snake, even when handled, seldom, if ever offers to bite, and the
wound caused by it is not as bad as the sting of a bee.

Two other small snakes (Brachysoma bimaculatum, and B.
calonotos), discovered by Mons. Verreaux in 1844, are mentioned
by Messrs Duméril and Bibron, as inhabitants of Tasmania;
since then no more specimens have come to hand from the
same locality, and we may fairly conclude that the habitat given by
M. Verreaux is erroneous.

The Vertebrata of Tasmania. 41

The Tasmanian frogs are also few in number. The Hyle, cr
“Tree Frogs,” represent three species, viz., the common “ Golden
Tree Frog,” Hyla aurea; “ Ewing’s Tree Frog,” Hyla ewingii ;
and a kind, which I consider to be identical with Hyla verreauzit,
all of which are common on the mainland of Australia. Of
Swamp-Frogs, we find the widely distributed Limnodynastes
tasmaniensis, a Pseudophryne discovered by Mr. Masters and
probably new, Pterophrynus tasmaniensis, and P. levis, the two latter
much infected by thelarve of a small fly of the Genus Batrachyomya,
(Macleay,) which insects are also found on allied species in
Australia.

These are all the species of frogs known from Tasmania, up to
the present time.

The fishes, such as inhabit fresh water only, are also limited. No
Eleotris, known here as the “ Gudgeon,” is as yet recorded,
though the genus exists in Australia, New Zealand, and South
America; of the Galaxide, the so called “ Black-fish,” appears to
be most common in the Tasmanian streams; this is Richardson’s
Galaxias truttaceus; we also have specimens of the Galaxias
attenuatus, from the Ouse River, collected by Mr. Masters; the
“Common Eel,” Anguilla australis, and the well known “ Fresh-
water Herring,” Prototroctes marena. I wish I could have added
the Salmon, but at present no authenticated specimens exist in
any of our colonial museums. Competent judges state that the
Salmon has been duly acclimatized and has been frequently
observed in the Derwent, it is therefore much to be regretted,
that no specimen has yet been caught, if only to prove beyond
doubt the success of one of the greatest experiments of modern
times.

In summing up the whole Vertebrata of the island, leaving out
the extinct Dingo, Seals, Whales, and Marine fish, we find there are

26 Mammals
162 Birds
6 Lizards
3 Snakes
7 Frogs, and!
4 Fresh-water Fishes.

Together 208 Vertebrata

about thirty-seven of which may be considered as peculiar to
Tasmania.

42 Auriferous Districts of

Art. II1l.—On the Auriferous and other Metalliferous Districts of
Northern Queensland, by the Rev. W. B. Clarke, IA.,
F.GS., §c., Vice-President.

[Read 9th September, 1867.]

In prefacing what I have to say upon one of the more imme-
diate subjects of the present communication, it may be well to
call attention to the striking fact that the great Westera interior
of this continent is bounded to the Eastward by a series of
generally high insulated ranges which preserve a nearly meridional
direction on either side of the 140th degree of longitude.

Such is the great mass of the South Australian Ranges to the
westward of that meridian, and such are the less lofty but
rocky fastnesses of the Barrier and Grey Ranges of Sturt to the
eastward of it; and such also are the ranges at and above the
head of the Cloncurry River of Burke and Wills, and that great
Range to the eastward of the latter, which was discovered by
M’ Kanlay, and which bears his name. This Range is, im all pro-
bability, connected with the Barrier and Grey Ranges of Sturt,
as it is in direct prolongation of their strike.

The whole of these mountain masses is made up of metamorphic
ancient rocks of metalliferous charaeter, and is surrounded by
tertiary and post-tertiary deposits, which are partially auriferous,
the detritus or drift having received its gold from the disintegra-
tion of the quartz veins which intersect certain portions of the
older formations.

These ancient masses rise like fragmentary relics of Islands
(which, undoubtedly, they were in Tertiary times) out of the
present levels of the surrounding Deserts, through which the
drainages of the still more eastern Cordillera of New South
Wales and Queensland diverge to 8.W. and N.W., transverse to
each other in direction, but yet rudely parallel with the respective
lines of the Easternand North Eastern coasts, which may be said,
for convenience, to meet, as the general trends of the Cordillera
do, between the 28th and 29th parallels of latitude. As the
Western coast of York Peninsula, though extremely low, is
nevertheless well defined, and does not very considerably deviate
from the general boundary of the South Australian masses along
Spencer’s and St. Vincent’s Gults,—we may consider Eastern
Australia to be a distinct and well-defined division of the Con-
tinent ; especially as we now know that the most western waters,
which reach Spencer’s Gulf to the South-West, and those which
pass to the South-Eastern corner of the Gulf of Carpentaria,

Northern Queensland. 43

rise very near to each other,—countenancing an idea, which
is not, however, yet established, that there was once a communi-
cation between those localities.

A careful inspection of the chart of Australia—now gradually
but, nevertheless, rapidly being filled in—will show that the
coast lines also rudely follow the strike of the Main Cordillera,
and that a series of lines drawn in their direction will divide the
country into mathematical figures of a tolerably regular shape ;
in fact, no country is in this respect better defined than Aus-
tralia.

Another feature of the physical conformation of Australia is
the persistency with which certain of the older formations follow
a geological strike along the meridian or within certain angular
deviations from it; so that they recur in the same direction,
where the denudation of younger overlying deposits exposes them
to an outcrop, and this is most distinctly the case along the
extension of the Cordillera to the westward nearly throughout
Victoria.

It was this and other collateral facts which very much guided
me in pointing out many years ago certain auriferous tracts not
only in New South Wales proper, butin Victoria and Queensland,
which both at the time belonged to this territory.

This enabled me also, in conjunction with another geological
feature (viz., the undulation of the beds in the selected forma-
tions, the dips of which are reversed so producing synclinal
depressions and anticlinal ridges), to expect a recurrence of
similar outcrops to the eastward or westward of an assumed
meridian such as that which defines the position of the great
gold-fields north and south of Mount Alexander.

This class of observations also induced me to infer that a gold-
field would be found near Peak Downs, and led me to point out
in 1851 a tract of country within certain definite limits of lati-
tude and longitude (viz., between 32 and 34°S., and 146 and 149°
E.), which have since been found to include not only the gold-
fields of Forbes and Young, but the more recently developed
district eof Emu Creek. So, in the case of Canoona and other
localities at the back of Port Curtis, about Rockhampton, and
along the Burdekin River, my indications have not failed, because
they were founded on the knowledge of the concurring data of
direction, geological age and other conditions which have success-
fully been brought into play elsewhere.

These statements are not made in order to claim individual
credit, but merely as proofs, that any success which may have
attended my inspection and study of this country has been the
result not of mere conjecture and rash conclusions, but of a
careful comparison of the features of the general physical and
geological structure of the Continent, particularly in reference

4A, Auriferous Districts of

to certain fixed points, where the Meridian is coincident with the
mountain strike, or where points of divergence in drainage are
coincident with well marked geological structure; and of these
there are several distinct examples observable on the chart.
According to these views, then, it was to be anticipated that, (as
I have frequently stated, and as is generally known), a consider-
able Auriferous region would be found to exist near or about the
144th and 145th meridians, and from about the 17th to the 19th
parallel, because in that region the Geological structure and the
other physical features of the country point to a combination of
circumstances of a convincing kind. In 1861, in reporting to
His Excellency Sir G. Bowen on the collection made in Mr. G.
E. Dalrymple’s expedition to ascertain the mouth of the Burdekin
River, 1 especially mentioned the country along the 147th and
148th meridians.

It is chiefly of the more Westerly portion of these tracts that
I have to speak this evening, and m so doing I propose to lay
before the Society the results of an examination of a considerable
part of them, communicated by a friend who fully enters into my
views, and whose reputation and long experience entitle him to the
highest respect. I mean Mr. Richard Daintree, lately employed
on the Geological Survey of Victoria.

Under the date of 23rd July, he addressed me in the following
terms :—

“ As news of the progress of Northern Queensland gold-fields
must have a special interest with you, their first prognosticator,
I will endeavour to give you an idea of what is gomg on; and if
you think it worth printer’s ink, ‘interpolate’ and publish it
with your own remarks.”

This is my justification of the present paper, and of my mode
of dealing with the communications of my friend Mr. Daintree.

In reply to inquiries of various correspondents and applicants
in person relating to the Peak Downs district, I long ago advised
them to carry their investigations towards the North-West, mto
and beyond the scrubs of the Suttor River, under the conviction that
between that river and the heads of the Lynd there would be
found an extension of the auriferous region. And this advice has
been found to be in accordance with the results.

It may be proper to give a general Geological sketch of the
structure of that part of the country which is under discussion.

Tt will, then, be seen that in about 18°S. and between 144° and
145° E. the Burdekin and Lynd rivers of Leichhardt head in a
granitic range striking about N.N.E., the latter flowing to N.W.,
and the former South-Easterly. This river flows through a tract
of country occupied by granite, pegmatite, gneiss, tale slate, mica
slate, and limestone, with quartz veins, porphyry, and basalt ;
being overlain by deposits of conglomerate and sandstone, which

Northern Queensland. 45

are intruded into, broken, contorted and altered by igneous rocks.
The basalt, which seems to me so far as [ have examined it, to
be as recent as that which forms the upper rock of that name in
Victoria, occupies a plateau at the head of the rivers, and so far
to the south as the Clarke River, in which it assumes in places
the lava-like character which distinguishes much of the country
near Melbourne.

Leichhardt and Gregory both describe the occurrence of these
formations, and both speak of streams of lava. There can be no
doubt then, that it is a region of disturbance ; the older forma-
tions being also highly inclined and the newer horizontally bedded,
these being also occasionally hardened and tilted.

From an examination of collections made by Leichhardt,
Gregory, M’Kinlay, and other explorers, I could have no hesit-
ation in believing that gold would exist in that region, otherwise
so much in accordance with physical facts elsewhere observed.

Since Gregory’s journey, the discoveries of Burke and Wills,
and (in search of them) Walker’s, M’Kinlay’s, and Lands-
borough’s, and still more recently the explorations of Jardine
and Daintree have added much to our geological as well as geo-
graphical knowledge of the region between the 141st and 145th
meridians. The courses of the new rivers Norman and Einnas-
leigh, which latter flows to the Staaten of the Dutch, have been
discovered, and adjustments of the Lynd and Gilbert have taken
place somewhat in advance of Leichhardt’s arrangement of those
waters. We know now also that the waters of the Thomson, to
which the Barcoo of Mitchell appears to be a tributary, and the
Flinders rise in the same ranges, not more than trom 170 to 200
miles from the Burdekin, and about 200 or 240 from the Cape
River which was discovered by Leichhardt as a tributary of the
Suttor, and which it enters not many miles from the junction of
the latter with the Burdekin.

Within the limits of these boundaries, which by the Suttor is
connected with Peak Downs, and then on to Broad Sound,
Canoona, Rockhampton, Gladstone, the Don, the Mary, and
Brisbane, we have various tracts of greater or less auriferous
promise, these tracts cropping out amidst surrounding deposits of
Middle and Upper Paleozoic, and Secondary formations and over-
lying areas of Tertiary and Post-pliocene age. The range of
country here indicated cannot be less than 900 miles in length
from S.E., to N.W., and although some of the auriferous spots
may not be more rich than the immediate vicinity of Brisbane,
yet there are others of a more important character, and even more
so than any yet fully developed in Queensland.

If, again, we take into account the Fanning River, Keelbottom
Creek, Star Creek, and others, westward and eastward of the
Burdekin, there must undoubtedly be a vast amount of gold yet

46 Auriferous Districts of

to be discovered, though, probably, at wide intervals. In this
brief summary I do not mention with much expectation the
abundant occurrence of such gold as was discovered by me in the
quartz pebbles of the Secondary fossiliferous rocks of Fitzroy
Downs, pecause that fact may merely testify to the derivation of
the quartz from auriferous reefs in Secondary times (a very
important deduction on another account) ; and recently an explor-
ation by prospectors of the country 150 miles N.W., of Roma, on
the Fitzroy Downs, has not resulted in any discovery of alluvial
gold, probably because that whole country is of Secondary age.

If, however, we include Talgai and other places near the
northern boundary of New South Wales, and some mentioned in
my own reports, we shall see that Queensland offers ground for
great expectation of auriferous wealth. With her Coal-fields on
the Isaac, the Mackenzie, the Bowen, and at Hervey’s Bay, on
the Bremer and the Brisbane, the Dawson and the Condamine, she
becomes connected with similar coal deposits on the Clarence
River, in New South Wales, and by her abundant wealth in
Copper and Iron, bids fair to balance the present superior advan-
tages of our own territory in Coal and Gold.

The occurrence of Copper with gold in some localities in
Queensland is also very remarkable. In other places the copper
is so rich as to rival the wonderful masses of Lake Superior, the
lodes bemg made of little else than Native copper, without any
trace of gold. Whilst in other localities, again, the copper
occurs distinct from, but in close proximity to an auriferous area.
Such appears to be the case about Mount Wyatt, near the
junction of the Burdekin and Suttor, as gold is scattered in the
drift all the way to the Belyando.

This leads me to the Care River GoLp-FIELD.

The Cape River is merely at present indicated on the charts,
as entering the Suttor; but it has lately been explored, where
practicable, to its head, and stations are occupied between its
junction and Hughenden, on the head of Jardine Creek, which
is the Macadam River of Walker, and forms one chief source of
the Flinders.

From the head of the Flinders, gold may be found in small
particles for some distance down the river, though Jurassic and
Cretaceous rocks cover the older formations over a large area as
proved by the abundance of fossil shells, &c., and by remains of
reptiles, as for instance, at the base of Bramston Range, at
Marathon, on Richmond Downs, on O’Connell Creek, and else-
where. These rest upon the underlying Palzozoic or older
deposits which extend to the Burdekin and Suttor.

It is remarkable that Sir Thomas Mitchell should have turned
back from the Belyando River, which would have led him to the
Suttor, Cape, and Flinders’ Rivers, and have given him his long

Northern Queensland. AT

desired approach to Carpentaria. Mr. Gregory did not see the
Junction; but he tells us, what is most significant, that he passed
over great abundance of drift, and of sucha character as seems
to be indicative to a certain degree of agold region. Leichhardt
also states that the ridges were covered with pebbles. Trap and
porphyry occur not far off, and the rocks are often highly
inclined.

It has been already stated, that Gold has been found at the
head of the Flinders. Mr. Daintree reports tome that about
forty miles from the head of the Cape, and from ninety toa
hundred miles (direct, I presume) from the junction with the
Suttor, on a tributary called “ Betts’s Mistake” Creek, the Cape
River diggings are situated. He goes on to say :—

“The source of this branch of the Cape is from Mount Three
Heads, so called from the fact, that a tributary of Fletcher’s
Creek and Oxley Creek (a tributary of the Flinders) have their
sources from the same hill. From Hann and Co’s cattle station
on Fletcher’s Creek, Mount Three Heads is distant 8 miles 8S. 38
W. Running down Oxley’s Creek from its source to its junction
with the Flinders about 15 miles, gneiss, mica and hornblende
slate, with interstratified beds of quartzite are found to occupy
the whole distance.”

“Qn the parallel and more northern tributary of the Flinders
called the ‘ Walker,’ the gold-bearing metamorphic slates pass
under the basaltic table lands and are hidden from sight. The
lower ‘ Walker’ may thus be assumed to be the north-western
boundary of the Cape River series of auriferous rocks easily
available to the miner.”

“ Tooking from Mount Three Heads, towards the South-east a
broken country of hill and valley presents itself, a line of higher
and more abrupt ridges marking the water shed. The creeks and
gullies of this range, whether tributaries of the Cape, Flinders,
or Betts’s Mistake Creek, will I believe, all be found to be auri-
ferous and many of them payable. The range itself follows
nearly the strike of the metamorphic rocks of which it is com-
posed, and especially at the south-eastern extremity. The dip is
south-westerly. Between the upper Cape and Fletcher's Creek,
the ranges are of Syenite.”’ [I may mention here, that this rock
is a very good indication of Gold. I have found it so in various
parts of this Colony, and in the part of Queensland under notice
it is a prominent rock. Leichhardt noticed Syenite at the head
of the Lynd and on the Burdekin, (in the hills below Mount
M’Connell), which he thought was of Domite; but Mr. Dalrymple
has informed me it is granite. Mr. Gregory says that the sum-
mit of Mount M’Connell is marked by cliffs of porphyry, which
also occur on the right bankof the Suttor. These differences
may be all reconciled, for Syenite occasionally puts on a porphy-
ritic appearance. |

48 Auriferous Districts of

“ At the junction of Oxley Creek and the Flinders, on the
east bank of the latter, cliffs of horizontal sandstone and con-
glomerate mark the boundary of what is called the ‘desert
country, [Whether these rocks belong in part or at all toa
Carboniferous formation, Mr. Daintree does not state; but I-
have in my collections a coarse ferruginous quartz grit from the
Table-land between the Cape. and Flinders, and specimens of
coal from the junction of Jardine’s Creek, and fossilised wood
from the delta of the Cloncurry and Flinders. These were
brought to me by Mr. J.. Atkinson. There is, therefore, a pro-
bability that Coal-bearing beds do exist (a poimt on which Mr.
Daintree expresses a doubt) below the fossiliferous secondary
strata about O’Connell Creek, Walker’s Creek, and Richmond
Downs. |

“The cliffs above alluded to run parallel with the Cape Range,
and form the Southern boundary of the Auriferous belt under
discussion.

“ The area thus to be worked as “Cape Diggings” will be 70
miles long by from 10 to 15 broad.”’

“Tt is bounded on the N.W. by the lava of Walker’s Plains ;
on the North by the Syenite between Fletcher’s Creek and the
Cape; on the South by the Sandstone and Conglomerate of the
desert. The South-eastern boundary is not yet determined; but
it will be in that direction, that deep leads will have to be looked
for. the country being in that region flat, as far as the junction with
the Campaspe and the Cape, a distance of 50 or 60 miles.

“There were in the middle of July, about 100 miners at work
in two gullies called Specimen and Golden. The former of these
rises in Mount Remarkable, an isolated hill at the south-eastern
formation of the Auriferous range which extends from Mount
Three Heads.

“The character of the precious metal found in this gully is of
low standard, pale in colour and very little waterworn, particles
of the matrix adhering to nearly all the nuggets and to much of
the fine gold. This matrix is semi-transparent quartz, from
quartz leaders, quartzose gneiss, quartz and felspar, felspar and
brown oxide of iron.

[Here we have aremarkable agreement with the characteristics
of gold in some of the Syenitic and Granitic gold fields of New
South Wales, especially in one species of gold, which metal, so
far as our experience has gone, is found to become of lower
standard value as we proceed northwards. The tables compiled
by the officers of the Mint and published in the Exhibition
Catalogues, will establish this remarkable fact. |

Mr. Daintree says: “I am under the impression that no true
‘fissure reefs’ will be found on the Cape, the rocks being chiefly
Metamorphic, and their mineral matter having been concentrated

Northern Queensland. 49

in the thin quartz filaments attached to the planes of foliation
in the rocks themselves, retainmg a smaller proportion.”
[ Here, again, we have a parallel to what we may see in New
South Wales.| “Rolled pebbles of Sulphide of Antimony and
Micaceous and Titaniferous iron are also found in the drift.

“The depth of the sinking is from five feet downwards though
deeper ground exists, which will be left for future trial.

“Golden Gully affords metal of a higher standard, more water-
worn, coarser, rarely of the specimen class; it is worked in a
ravine, where the depth of the drift is seldom more than eighteen
inches.

“The mining population are working at their present camp,
owing to the supply of water being more abundant than else-
where. Payable gold has, however, been found, and dirt has been
stacked in several other gullies along the range; but no sufficient
trial can be made untila rainfall takes place.

[I have learned from another quarter, more recently than the
date of Mr. Daintree’s communication, that a satisfactory report
has been made by some recent prospectcrs, and that several hun-
dred ounces of gold have been obtained, and that the field is
likely to turn out well. |

“Many years ago,” says Mr. Daintree, “you pointed out the
Clarke River as a probable gold-field, basing your assertion
respecting it partly on the examination of specimens brought
down by Augustus Gregory from the junction of that river with
the Burdekin.

“So far as relates to that portion of the Clarke, a limited patch
of the Auriferous series is to be found there, but the drifts are
so light that it is questionable if payable gold will be met with.

“Higher up the Clarke two more recent formations prevent
these rocks appearing at the surface.

“T believe the one to be Upper Silurian, the other to be Upper
Devonian, such as that on the Star Creek, where Lepidodendron
occurs imbedded.

“On the Broken River—a tributary of the Upper Clarke—a
few miners are collecting gold in the so-called Upper Silurian
area. In this series the rocks represented are massive Conglom-
erates forming natural bars ; thick coralline limestones likewise
forming bars; with red, blue, and grey fissile and rubbly slates.
The limestones are full of Corals, imperfect Shells, &c.; the blue
slates also occasionally yield fossils.

“Ttis in a ravine at the back of one of these bars (or barriers)
of limestone which crosses the Broken River that payable gold
has been found; but as the shale and mudstone are so greatly
in excess of quartz, it is doubtful whether there will be profitable
employment for the miner, unless the interstratified Conglom-
erates prove to be the storehouses of the much-desired metal,

G

50 Auriferous Districts of

The first patches of gold worked on the Broken River certainly
followed the line of strike of one of these conglomerate beds.
There may be true fissure reefs worked here for gold; but I have
only observed very small ones myself.

“Tn the Broken River itself, I have found large boulders of
Sulphide of Antimony mixed with Limestone and one piece of
Galena, but failed to find any lode.”

[Galena was brought to me in August, 1861, from the vicinity
of Mount Wyatt. The minerals of this district must, therefore,
be widely diffused. From the fossils determined, it appears that
the Upper Silurian exists there covered by Upper Devonian and
upper Carboniferous formations. Inthe former occur the copper
and gold. This is repeated on the Broken River. |

Mr. Daintree goes on to say: “ I anticipate that as the country
becomes more known, valuable metallic ores will be found in the
Broken River and its tributaries. As the name implies, itis a
difficult country to travel over, and as the Aborigines in it yet
hold their own, it is unsafe for individual prospectors.

“The strike of the Upper Silurian is from N. to N.E, nearly
at right angles to the Metamorphic slates of the Cape.”

Writing of this country in his account of his first visit to
Northern Queensland, Mr. Daintree says (in the Yeoman of 29th
August, 1863),—‘‘ Mr. Clarke has long ago pointed out this dis-
trict asa future gold-field. The fulfilment or otherwise of this
prophecy is at hand.” It is, therefore, satisfactory to me that
Mr. Daintree should himself be the means of verifying the truth
of my prognostication in four years’ time, and I am greatly
obliged to him for enabling me to establish it. In that article in
the Yeoman, Mr. Daintree, after confirming some other views of
my own, gives a brief statement of the occurrence of Silurian
rocks in Queensland. His opinion is that the Upper Silurian
forms a belt from Brisbane to Broad Sound, extending to
Maryborough and Rockhampton, the dip being ata high angle to
N.E., and the strike parallel with the coast. Somewhat lower
come in the Canoona and other gold-fields 8.W. of Maryborough,
where the same Upper Silurian beds occur. On Perry’s Range,
Upper Burdekin, the dip is to S.W. These occur on the horizon
of the Canoona field, and represent the Western side of an
anticlinal, the summit of which has gone to form a portion of
the enormous Carboniferous formation, and, as proved by the
quartz in my fossiliferous Wollumbilla and Fitzroy Downs’ auri-
ferous calcareous rock, a portion of the Secondary formations,
that cover and conceal vast masses of the lower Paleozoic or even

older series of formations.

The only apparent difficulty in reconciling the age of the Silurian
of the Broken River with that of the co ast, is that the strike is
there N. to N.E., whilst to the South- eastward itisto N.W. This

Northern Queensland. 51

difficulty may be overcome, if we regard the formation as mant-
ling round a granitic axis. The slates of the Cape are repre-
sented as striking north-west, which ought to place them in the
same category as the Silurian of the coast ; the Broken River
slates assume a more meridional direction.

IT. I come now to a discovery by Mr. Daintree himself, in the
extending of the northern gold-fields to the head of the Gilbert
River. He says—“ Although the area of the auriferous rocks is
considerable both on the Cape and Clarke Rivers, still it is small
compared with the extent of the old metamorphic gold-bearing
slates of the Upper Gilbert.

“ The eastern tributaries of the Copperfield River, the western
tributaries of M’Kinron’s Lynd, the western and eastern tribu-
taries of Jardine’s Hinnasleigh River, all run through the mica
schists and other metamorphic formations.”

This is in close confirmation of the brief geological notices of
Gregory and M’Kinlay.

The former speaks of granite, porphyry, quartz, and black
slate in the drift of the river, with Iserine and minute garnets
one hundred and sixty miles below the head. Eighty miles
higher these rocks form low hills, the slate being contorted and
nearly vertical, and striking north and south, all much disturbed
and hardened by contact with porphyry ; quartz rock occurs in
beds or veins in the granite, also trending north and south. The
river sand contained Titaniferous iron: Trap was also very abun-
dant, the dip of the slate is given at from 60 to 80° E. by S.,
on the upper bank of the river. The older formations are crested
by horizontal sandstone. To the eastward the formations are
chiefly gneiss, porphyry, trap, and granite, with fragments of
slate, and other named rocks imbedded in the porphyry. Por-
tions of these, so far as I have examined, are a breccia—very
similar to what occurs in the upper part of the Peel River, and in
allavia on the Lachlan in New South Wales. The height of the
Dividing Range between the Gilbert and Lynd is about 2500 feet.
The poryhyry summits are described as fissured vertically in col-
umnar divisions. M’Kinlay, however, says the sandstone and con-
glomerate take the same forms, a little more to the westward. I
suspect the rocks are identical. M’Kinlay describes this region
as “fearfully grand and terrible.’ We had, he says, never dreamt
of such a rough country. He speaks also of granite on the head
waters of the Lynd, in advance of the well-known lava streams
of Leichhardt. From the dividing range to the Burdekin, the
surface presents decomposing slate and sandstone, and is strewn
with quartz pebbles of various colours. Mr. Dalrymple, on his
traverse from Rockingham Bay to the Valley of Lagoons, col-
lected facts relating to the existence of the formations mentioned

52 Auwrtferous Districts of

by me, which are in the fullest agreement with the previous
notices of Leichhardt, Kennedy, Gregory, and others.

Now, regarding the features just enumerated, it would natur-
ally be expected that gold should exist in this region, and there-
fore I long ago marked it on the map as an auriferous region.

The strike of the rocks in this region appears to have a trend
to the eastward, according to the observations of Mr. Gregory ;
and this is confirmed by Mr. Daintree, who remarks as follows :—
“The watershed between the Hinnasleigh and the Burdekin, with
several of the upper Burdekin branch creeks, afford rock sections
similar in every respect to the Cape diggings. As the main strike
of the formation is north-easterly, and mica schists are said to
crop out on the coast at Endeavour River, and again on several
parts of the Louisiade Archipelago, I think that we may safely
infer that auriferous tracts are continuous throughout, sometimes
hidden by basalt, sometimes by large tracts of a horizontal
sandstone series of unknown age, as on the upper portions of
Leichhardt’s Lynd.”

Perhaps these inferences may be modified; but I have always
expected another gold-field in the north, about the 144th meridian,
on the heads of the Mitchell waters, and the Kennedy River:
nor is it unlikely that at the back of the east coast there are
patches of Auriferous country as far as 13°S. Mr. Dalrymple
writes in 1860 :—“ During my expedition last year I found con-
siderable tracts of country in the neighbourhood of Leichhardt’s
and Robey’s ranges, bearing auriferous indications of a very
marked description. . . . The appearance of the country to
the south-west and south of port Denison leads me to anticipate
auriferous indications in that neighbourhood also. The Rey. W.
B. Clarke has long pointed to this region as the seat of the future
gold-fields of the north, and my observations certainly give addi-
tional probability to the speculation, that here will the future
develope the principal Auriferous deposits of Queensland.”

The formations about Endeavour River are grey granite, schist,
tale slate, with quartz and flinty slate abutting on the granite ;
hornblendic granite occurring in the Turtle Islands, off the coast,
and in Lizard Island; whilst to the North of Endeavour River,
west of Cape Flattery, a table-land comes in, with a trend to
S.W. by W., and from 500 to 600 feet high. The coast about
Cape Grafton consists of grey granite and a tourmaline rock of
granitic character. Northward, in Trinity Bay, contorted tale
schist with quartz veins occurs, dipping 60° to S.W. ‘This gives
a strike about N.N.W. Mica slate, contorted, occurs in the
Barnard Islands to the South. Granite also occurs at Cape
Melville and at Cape Direction, with flinty rock at Cape Sidmouth,
and trap between 1t and the mouth of the Kennedy, both occurring
with granite. Quartz also occurs abundantly in the neighbour-

Northern Queensland. 53

hood of Cleveland Bay, at the back of which gold has been found.
The general character of the coast of the York Peninsula to the
13th parallel is, therefore, in agreement with the country six
degrees more south, and to the east of the Burdekin. I have
not been able to have any of the rocks in the region just named
subjected to assay; but with respect to those of the Louisiade
Archipelago, certain of them, especially the quartz, were assayed
for me at the Mint some years ago, but without finding any gold
in them. They eonsisted of slate, porphyry, &c.

Mr. Daintree goes on to say :—‘“I have not Leichhardt’s work
to refer to as to the geology of Kirchner’s Range, but since it
les in the strike of the Gilbert mica-schists, it is probably a
schistose barrier.”

On making reference I find Leichhardt does not distinctly state
what is its formation ; but he mentions Tale schist to the south-
east of it with Syenite passing into Hornblende rock and with
scattered quartz crystals. To the north-westward, Granite and
Pegmatite occurred. The trend of the ranges on the cast bank
of the river appears to be north-easterly and easterly.

I suspect that there are two divisions of the old Paleozoic rocks
in the region under review, and that some of the supposed
“metamorphic” rocks are transmuted Lower Silurian or perhaps
Huronian. If so, gold will, probably, be hereafter found.

Supposing that the preceding observations have been founded on
sufficient data, then, regarding the general trend of the divisio
aqguarum from the granitic Bellenden Kerr Hills above Rocking-
ham Bay, south- westerly through the heads of the Lynd and
Gilbert to the ranges of Burke and Wills at the head of the
Cloncurry, where quartz reefs are known to exist, I would venture
to anticipate, hereafter, a development of Auriferous country also
in the neighbourhood of M’Kinlay’s Range, and to the westward
especially as Wills points out a quartz reef, and as on Lands-
borough’s country along the Gregory and O’Shanassy Rivers,
which also head along the previously indicated water- -parting,
there is abundance of Basalt, which not only occupies a similar
prominent position at the head of the Lynd, but also occurs in
the Bramston Range, on the Flinders, and near to the head of
the Barkly River, in an extensive table land.*

III. I have now briefly to notice the occurrence of Copper in
Northern Queensland.

Independently of the well-known Peak Down or Mount Drum-
mond mines, Copper occurs at the Dee Mountain and in various
other localities. Mr. Daintree, however, has added a fresh locality
on the Lynd River of M’Kinnon. Of its occurrence there, he
remarks as follows :—

(* See p. 46)

54: Auriferous Districts of

“ Copper lodes occur in both the Upper Silurian and the Ma-
tamorphie series ; in both apparently due to porphyritic intrusion,
as the Mount Wyatt outcrops of copper ore in fossiliferous Upper
Silurian are associated with dykes either of Porphyry or Horn-
blende rock.

At the junction of the Lynd and Copperfield River, I have
taken up a copper lode exposed on the bank of the river; its
upper and lower walls are Mica-schist; its thickness, where it
is cut through in a drive at thirty feet from the surface is twenty-
three feet. At this depth the ore is chiefly spongy metallic copper.

“ On the east bank of the river, within ten chains of the maim
outcrop, a mass of porphyry crosses the metamorphic schists nearly
at right angles to their strike, and on examination I found iron
and copper “pyrites not uncommon constituents of the porphyritic
mass.

“This dyke is continuous about five stile on ‘he eastern bank
of Jardine’s Eimnasieigh; it then crosses that river, and I have
followed it about fifteen miles westerly from that point. It re-
sembles very much the porphyry of Buchan River, in Gipps’s
Land, with which district you are acquainted.”

I have now, in dealing with these researches of my friend Mr.
Daintree, discharged, I hope, a duty to all who are interested in
the prosperity of Australia. The discoveries of Gold and Copper
and other metals are not merely valuable to individual explorers,
but belong to all the colonies in general. Those who work them,
and those who profit by them, are of no particular section of the
community, nor of any given member of the Australian provinces.
I trust it is in fulfilment of that which we so recently announced
as a chief object of the Royal Society,* that Ihave brought these
discoveries before the Society to-night, “incorporating” Mr.
Daintree’s remarks according to his own expressed desire in my
own paper, which I wish to be considered as a kind of progress
report on the older rocks of Queensland. I cannot conclude,
however, without drawing attention to the Photographs which I
now exhibit of the Lynd copper country, taken by Mr. Daintree,
as explaining, in a clear manner, some of the picturesque geo-
logical scenery of that very distant locality, at least 1200 miles
to the north of us by direct measurement.

I would especially call attention to the outlines of the rolling
eee range beyond the Alligator Pool in the Copperfield
River ; it is the exact representation of numerous ridges of the

same kind in our own gold-fields. Those who have seen the
Araluen Range, or the “Har nbhum ae at Salisbury, near the
Uralla gold- field, in New England, will at once be struck by the
resemblance. Again, in the view of M’Kinnon’s Lynd River we

(* See p. 26.)

Northern Queensland. 55

have placed before us an interesting junction of old metalliferous
sedimentary rocks with basalt.

Such representations of physical occurrences are always inter-
esting and valuable.

TV. I have also to exhibit some drawings and photographs of
another vast display of metallic wealth, not onthe Lynd but in a
different direction quite as far off, but stillin association with the
large region which I have been discussing, though in a richer field
(as I believe) of copper and iron, than has as yet been found in Aus-
tralia. The localities in question are next the intersection of
M’Kinlay’s route with that of Burke and Wills, and for full a
hundred miles of country along the M’Kinlay Range.

The copper itself, I may say, is very extensively developed ;
and iron still more so. The latter metal is, we already know, ex-
tremely abundant in Queensland, and magnificent specimens of
ore from the neighbourhood of Port Curtis were exhibited in
Paris at the first French International Exhibition. There are
also in New South Wales vast masses of iron of a more solid
character than the Fitzroy ore: and such I found in the explo-
rations | made through the colony fifteen or sixteen years ago.

There is a near approach to those masses which are depicted
in my friend’s sketches (not this time by Mr. Daintree) in
those which Captain Sturt has mentioned, and one of which
“ Piese’s Nob,” forms an illustration in the 2nd Vol. of his Central
Australia (p. 127).

In that case, as in the one before us, the ore is chiefly magnetic.

As to the Copper from this new locality, the Mint assay, with
which I have been obliged, gives a proportion of nearly 95 per
cent. of pure copper and a little silver. There are green car-
bonates also producing upwards of 58 per cent. of copper.

Looking at the whole of the phenomena represented by the
features of the region, it is certain that Nature has been there in
a very active state producing great combinations of galvanic,
magnetic, and chemical forces. The iron algo forms solid hills
and cliffs rising out of a desert to 50 and 60 feet in broad ridges,
and appearing under most picturesque forms. Imagine an ex-

lorer passing a night in a cavern in the very heart of a cliff of
iron! But the most interesting fact which I have to notice is
that the cliffs of magnetic iron on the Cloncurry are in exact con-
formity with cliffs of the same ore on the Godamully River in the
Territory of Madras.

Comparing the photograph which I have had made from the
sketch of the Australian locality by my friend Mr. Henry, with the
lithograph given in the 4th vol. of the Memoirs of the Geological
Survey of India, (part Il, pl. 1), there appears to be a most re-
markable identity in the scenery and appearance of the cliffs in
both districts ; and reading the description in the Memoirs given

56 Auriferous Districts of

by Messrs. King and Foote, (ch. vi.) I am induced to believe |
that the age of the formations is nearly, if not actually, the same,
judging from the collections that have been made for me by
various recent visitors to the Cloncurry district.

The copper before us seems very much akin to that which
occurs on Lake Superior, in North America. Its lead is to the
West; that of Peak Downsis to the South, and that of Daintree’s
Lynd mine to H. 80° 8. Inferences from what has been said in
relation to the age of the formations in which these deposits occur
may be drawn respecting the new finds.

The Lake Superior copper rocks are, however, Silurian. It is
probable that the new Copper mine in question may belong to a
lower stage, perhaps as low as the Cambrian (or Huronian) itself.
In each case eruptive rocks are present. Granite and mica slate,
with quartz veins holding epidote micaceous iron and pyrites are
common rocks 4n the vicinity.

As showing how generally Copper exists in the interior, we
may notice that M’Kinlay mentions his having found copper
during his journey through the wilderness.

A final remark must be added for the benefit of persons in
search of Copper. Through an example offered by specimens on
the table, we see how easily the eye may be deceived. Often
have I had to disappoint the expectations of persons who have
come to me with what they called indications of Copper because
their specimens had a tinge of green, arising as it often does from
an ore of iron; but it was not altogether a disappointment, when
I stated to the bringer of certain specimens now before us (also
from Queensland, Kilkeven, on the left bank of the Mary) that
they did not indicate a Copper lode, because it was believed by
me that they belonged to what my friends at the Mint afterwards
proved it to be, a Gold lode; the assay assigning to all the highly
cupriferous tinting only from 4 to 5 5 per cent. of Copper, whilst
the proportion of Gold was from 1 to 3 ounces per ton, and that
of Silver from 16 to 19 dwts.

In bringing before the Society a very extensive subject, it has
of necessity been laid upon me to be as brief as possible; but
enough has been said on this occasion to show that our sister
colony of Queensland has every reason to anticipate for her
Northern districts a future of success in the development of the
Metaliiferous riches with which she has been endowed.

In conclusion, it is perhaps only a natural feeling to express
some degree of satisfaction at having been enabled on this occa-
sion to bring under notice a region of Eastern Australia, which

together with Dr. Rattray’s paper read by me before the Philoso-
phical Society some time ago, on the Geology of Cape York, has
not only enabled me to connect my previous researches with the
geology of that distant territory, but has also supplied me with

Northern Queensland. 57

the means of supplementing my own personal labours in other
parts of the Colonies, and completing to a ccrtain moderate ex-
tent my researches, investigations, and speculations on experi-
mental grounds, over many not inconsiderable areas of a region
Gncluding those parts of Tasmania which have fallen under review)
which is represented by twenty-eight degrees of latitude and
fifteen degrees of longitude. Upon the most important portions
of this vast territory, either by individual occupation im the field
or by aid of the evidence of friends who are engaged in simiiar
studies, I have now been enabled to complete the outlines of a
general sketch of the Geology of nearly all Eastern Australia,
and of pointing out or illustrating the chief of those Auriferous
and other Metalliferous districts which Providence has scattered
over the length and breadth of the Australian Continent, as in-
centives for the fulfilment of the command to “replenish the
earth and subdue it.”’ In the present essay, the chief practical
value as relates to the Cape River Gold-field, is due to the
careful researches of Mr. Daintree; but’ there has been left to
me the duty of bringing his researches, and those of other field-
investigators, into public notice in a connected form.

And even if our expectations be found, hereafter, of less real
importance than has been assigned to them, the matter now con-
densed into a brief discussion, such as the present, is not without
results of another kind.

o—

P.S. It may be proper to record here, that the preceding paper
has led to very important results, inasmuch as, it having attracted
the attention of the Parliament and Government of Queensland,
a correspondence with the author ensued, and on his recom-
mendation, the colony has been divided into two districts, of
which the southern bas been placed in the charge of Mr. Aplin,
and the northern has been allotted to Mr. Daintree. In due
time, it is hoped the whole will be surveyed and described.

May, 1568.

58 Re-appearance of Scurvy

Arr. IV.—On the re-appearance of Scurvy in the Merchant Service,
by E. P. P. Bedford, Esq., P.R.C.S.
[Read 9th of October, 1867. ]

In the Lancet of the 7th of April, 1866,is the following passage:

“There seems little reason to doubt, that a serious amount of
Scurvy exists in the Mercantile Navy, and that this amount has
a tendency rather to increase than diminish. The account given
by Mr. Leach, the resident Medical officer of the ‘“ Dreadnought,”
the hospital which receives the largest number of Scurvy cases,
shows a steady gradual rise in the number admitted. Thus in
the last quarter of this year there were 39 cases, while in the
corresponding quarter of the last three years there were 22, 20,
and 15, respectively.

Provincial reports of the disease are equally unsatisfactory—
one ship arrived lately at Bristol with a crew of 22, and 11 cases
of Scurvy ; another at Hull, with a crew of 28, and 12 cases of
Scurvy. North country ships have a discreditable reputation for
Scurvy as compared with London Ships.”

From this time public attention in England has been directed
to the increase of Scurvy among Merchant seamen ; investigations
took place and measures were introduced into parliament having
regard to the health of seamen.

Sydney being the sea port of New South Wales, many vessels
arriving here from long voyages—several of the colonists employed
as seamen—the merchants of Sydney bemg much engaged in
shipping interests, the health and well bemg of seamen is a
question here of practical importance, and should stir up the
duty imposed upon us, from higher considerations, to improve by
every means, the health of a body of men whose useful employ-
ment exposes them to special dangers.

The disappearance of Scurvy from the British Navy is so nearly
complete that many naval surgeons have passed the whole period
of their service without being called upon to treat one case of
Scurvy.

It is said to have been absent from the transportation service,
but this is not correct. From documents in my possession I find
that from October 1831, to August 1836, there arrived in Tas-
mania, in summer months, 10 vessels containing 2386 convicts, of
whom 2 died of diarrhcea, and six of other diseases soon after
arrival; that 2 in one ship had died of Scurvy, and 16 of other
diseases, during the voyages. In spring months, 11 vessels arrived

In the Merchant Service. 59

containing 3122 convicts, of whom 3 died of Scurvy, 4 of dysentery,
and 2 of diarrhea, and 8 of other diseases, shortly after arrival,
and that 1 died of dysentery, and 12 of other diseases during the
voyage. In the autumn months, 9 vessels with 1909 convicts
arrived, of whom I died of Scurvy, 1 of dysentery, and 1 of diarrhea
and 4 of other complaints, shortly after arrival, and 13 died of
Scurvy, 1 of dysentery, and 19 of other diseases during the voyage.
In the winter months, seven vessels with 1778 convicts arrived,
of these 1 died of Scurvy, 2 died of dysentery, and 11 of other
diseases, shortly after arrival, and 2 died of diarrhoea, and 29 died
from other diseases during the voyage.

I have notes of upwards of thirty post mortem examinations of
persons dying in Tasmania from Scurvy—also, many dying from
other diseases in their bodies, the effects of Scurvy would be
detected.

From August 1836. to May 1846, out of upwards of 3000 ad-
missions into the Colonial Hospital, Hobart Town, I find 52
admitted with Scurvy, and 8 of these died.

These hospital admissions, and the number of deaths, do not
represent all the injuries produced by Scurvy in the periods. re-
ferred to. No case of Scurvy was taken into hospital if the man’s
strength allowed him to be as an out patient, where his recovery
was quicker. This accounts for the small number of admissions,
and the larger proportion of deaths to the patients taken into the
house.

It is clear from the records from the Dreadnought, and the
facts I have stated, that whatever may be the state of the navy,
as yet, the merchant service and transport service are not free
from Scurvy.

It will not, therefore, be unwise for me to remind you, in afew
words, of what has been the havoc committed by Scurvy.

The earliest account given of Scurvy was its appearance in
the army of Louis 9th, in Egypt, in 1260.

Vasca de Gama lost more than 100 men out of 120 in his voy-
age. Of four ships that sailed from England in 1609, for the
establishment of the East India Company, there were lost nearly
three fourths of the crew before reaching the Cape of Good Hope.
The Commodore’s ship was not attacked, this arose from the daily
issue of lime juice to the men. Yet, this remedy was neglected
for 150 years afterwards.

Sir R. Hawkins states in his accounts of two yoyages to the
South Seas, in 1593, that upwards of 10,000 mariners had died
under his own observation alone, during 20 years.

Larrey states that in 1801, during the siege of Alexandria,
which was commenced in May, and ended in August, 3,500 scor-
butic patients were received into the military hospitals.

In 1760, the British troops in Quebec, after its capture by the
French, lost 1000 men from Scurvy.

60 Re-appearance of Scurvy

From the most severe and best known examples taking place
in Fleets, it was thought that salt provisions was the chief, if not
entire, cause of Scurvy.

This opinion was not held from the time of of Lind, Cook, and
Blake, but before their time, and since in the popular mind, the
opinion was that salt provisions caused Scurvy.

In 1836 °7 and ’8, Scurvy occurred in several gaols from the
want of vegetables, ‘and in'1836 it oceurred among the troops at
Adelaide, at the Cape of Good Hope.

In 1847 ’8, and 9, it shewed itself in various parts of England,
Scotland, and Ireland, depending for its cause on the potato
blight.

In all these instances the sufferers had fresh provisions, but
they had few, and in most instances, no vegetables, and their diet ~
in other respects often inferior.

The above is but asketch of the ravages produced by this disease,
im its more marked forms, exhibiting those symptoms so character-
istic of this complaint, pail which are described im Anson’s “ Voy-
age round the World” ; but it is not alone in these distinet eases
that deaths and incapacity are produced, but in obscure forms,
and by affecting internal organs, its victims have been numerous,
and there has been, and no doubt now is, great destruction of
health, in consequence of this insidious disease. Therefore
the cause which produces Scurvy should be widely known, and
the means of prevention not only known, but they should be
carried out in every merchant vessel as completely as in a man-of-
war.

In ships of war there are large numbers of men together, the
diseases that take place among them are known to the authorities,
and therefore the appearance and spreac of Scurvy among them
is not only seen but more easily remedied.

In merchant vessels the number of men is small, and this in
fact conduces to their safety, but the amount of disability from
illness, and deaths from Scurvy. is not easily ascertained.

There can be no doubt but that the absence of vegetables is
the cause of Scurvy.

The best means of prevention is vegetables—fresh if possible—
or sour krout, pickled onions, lime juice, and such articles of diet.

With a proper supply and use of these articles, Scurvy would
never occur—whatever other form of disease migh attack a crew.

pee account I have given of Scurvy among the convicts, though
it shews that it prevailed, and toa considerable extent, yet, it was
mild in its effects compared with the history of the navy one
hundred years ago.

There ‘is a circumstance connected with the convict service,
which is deserving of notice.

In the Merchant Service. 61

The vessels employed were all inspected in London, the con-
viects were supplied with the same articles of diet, had the same
amount of cubic space, and of clothing ; the men and women were
of the same class; they were medically inspected before embar-
cation; went the same voyage, under similar rules of discipline ;
and a medical officer of the Royal Navy in charge of each ship.
Yet, they arrived in very different conditions of health, and this
difference arose entirely from the character of the medical officer ;
if a good disciplinarian, he kept his men in cleanly habits, and had
the between decks properly cleaned, the boards of the berths
moyed, and all wet and dirt kept away from the decks, and par-
ticularly the bedding, the convicts couched in a healthy state. I
could tell when I knew the surgeon in charge if he had made
more than one previous voyage, in what condition he would land
his men. And [have known officers most anxious in their charge,
and self-denying in their duty, fail in their efforts, entirely from
want of knowledge of the necessity of attending to details re-
specting general health in war ding off Scurvy.

The experience I gained from the result of my observation on
the condition of convicts landed after a few months’ voyage is,
that without any special provision in the way of diet, even with-
out vegetables, by strict attention to hygenic rules men might be
landed free of Scurvy.

The combination of proper diet, and great attention to means
of preserving health, which is carried out in the navy, has, I trust,
quite put an end to Seurvy in that service, its more open forms
are gone, and I hope its obscurer influences likewise.

There was even a still greater proof of the necessity arising for
great attention to the condition of the ship and the habits of the
men in preventing disease, shewn by the opposite states in which
the crews of the English and French Antarctic expeditions arrived
in Tasmania in 1839. The two English vessels, under the com-
mand of Sir James C. Ross, were in excellent health, not any
man sick, the vessels in beautiful order—in one word, in that
condition of great cleanliness in which we always see English
vessels of war.

The two French vessels, under Admiral D’Urville, arrived full
of sickness, and it became my duty to provide thirty with hospital
accommodation on shore labourmg under Scurvy and dysentery.
These vessels were great contrasts to the English; they were not
as clean as many merchant vessels, and the men had not a cleanly
or tidy appearance. They were lounging about, and there was
an absence of all that smartness and neatness about both men
and vessels which had characterised the English ships and their
crews.

And yet on board these French ships were medical officers of
great attainments, and who devoted themselves most carefully

62 Re-appearance of Scurvy

to the care of the sick, and none could have seen or known
Admiral D’Urville without being convinced of his ability and
kindness of heart.

The history of the French expedition was that of the English
navy some years ago; the condition of the health of the English
expedition is due to the system first thoroughly adopted and
carried out by Captain Cook.

In the year 1776, Captain Cook was awarded the gold medal
for his paper on the method taken for preserving the health of
the crew of the Resolution during her voyage round the world.

After speaking of the use of malt made into sweet wort, which
he thinks one of the best antiscorbutics, he alludes to the use of
sour krout, portable soup or broth, fresh vegetables when pro-
eurable, and the use of the lob of Jemons and oranges, which
latter he states the surgeon found useful in several cases, and
sugar instead of oil, and wheat instead of much oatmeal, he found
good exchanges. The paper then contains the following passage:

“ But the introduction of the most salutary articles either as
provisions or medicines will generally prove unsuccessful unless
supported by certain rules of living. On this principle many
years’ expericnce, together with some hints I had from Sir Hugh
Palliser, the Captains Campbell, Wallis, and other intelligent
officers, enabled me to lay down.a plan by which all has to be
conducted. The crew were at three watches, except on some
extraordinary occasions, by this means they were not so much
exposed to the weather as if they had been at watch and watch,
and they had generally dry clothes to shift themselves when they
happened to get wet. Care was also taken to expose them as
little as possible. Proper methods were employed to keep their
persons, hammocks, bedding, and clothes, &c., constantiy clean
and dry. Equal pains were taken to keep the ship clean and dry
between decks. Once or twice a week she was aired with fires ;
and when this could not be done, she was smoked with gunpowder
moistened with vinegar and water. I had also frequently a fire
made in an iron pot, at the bottom of the well, which greatly
purified the air in the lower parts of the ship. To this and clean-
liness, as well in the ship as among the people, too great attention
cannot be paid. The least neglect occasions a putrid and offensive
smell below, which nothing but fires will remove; and if these be
not used in time, those smells will be attended with bad conse-
quences. Proper care was taken of the ship’s coppers, so that
they were kept constantly clean. The fat which boiled out of
the salt beef and pork, I never suffered to be given to the people
as is customary: being of opinion that it promotes the Scurvy.
I never failed to take in water wherever it was to be procured,
eyen when we did not seem to want it; because I look upon fresh
water from the shore to be much more wholesome than that

In the Merchant Service. 63

which has been kept some time on board. Of this essential
article we were never at an allowance, but had always abundance
for every necessary purpose.

Tam convinced that with plenty of fresh water, and a close
attention to cleanliness, a ship’s company will seldom be much
affected with the Scurvy, though they should not be provided
with any of the antiscorbutics before mentioned.”

In a voyage of three years and eighteen days through all cli-
mates, only one man died from disease and that without any
mixture of Scurvy.

In fact, Cook, in his paper of 1776, had not only shewn the
way by precept, but he had followed it out in practice ; his convic-
tion has been fully borne out by the results in the transportation
service, and the contrasts of the English and French expeditions
to the south, also strongly prove the soundness of his views, the
noblest proof of his correctness is the present state of the British
navy.

Thus, the man to whose energy and enterprise England owes
the possession of these colonies, is now speaking to us in words
of wisdom and warning for the benefit of our commerce and our
seamen, in words that require grave attention at this time.

To remove the cause of Scurvy, have vegetables; in their
absence, or where the people have vegetables, follow out strictly
Cook’s plan for preserving the health of seamen.

Vegetables had only gradually, from Henry the Eight’s time, be-
come used in England; and itis no doubt to the greater considera-
tion which had been bestowed upon meat as part of the ration, that
the absence of vegetables as the sole cause of Scurvy was over-
looked ; and it required the numerous instances I have referred
to, of Scurvy arising where no salt provisions were used to fix
attention properly to the fact.

I have alluded to the breaking out of Scurvy at Victoria, in
the Cape of Good Hope, where fresh rations were issued, but no
vegetables. Dr. Murray, who was then the principal medical
officer on that station, forwarded a report of his own with enclo-
sures for medical officers under his orders ; these reports contain
not only an interesting account of Scurvy, under the peculiar
circumstances in which it took place, but Dr. Murray had formed
some theoretical views as to the nature of Scurvy; and at this
station a new treatment for Scurvy was adopted—instead of high
feeding with meat, and the use of stimulants, all stimulants were
withheld, and bleeding, purgatives, light diet, with vegetables,
were given, and with good results.

I can speak personally of this system of treating Scurvy, which
depends for its success on giving that food, which having been
withheld, had caused the disease. It is interesting in shewing
that food in which but little nitrogen is given is best suited to

64 Re-appearance of Scurvy

scorbutic patients—and thus agrees with what Sir G. Blane
found, that white meal was best—and both Cook and Blane pre-
fer white wheaten flour to oatmeal. This is not only usefulin a
curative point of view, but is valuable as bearing out what the
history of the disease had shewn, that Scurvy has for its cause
the absence of vegetables.

Blane is very decided in his opinion as to the superiority of
wine over spirits as an article of the diet of seamen. I can offer
no opinion of my own on this subject from experience ; but I am
induced to think it a very important matter, and while beer from
its bulk cannot well be carried on long voyages for large bodies
ot men, I feel assured that colonial wine of good quality would
be far superior to grog.

I have mentioned the obscure forms of disease produced by
Scurvy. I cannot enter into a full description of these, but there
is one, and in my opinion the most important of that obscure
form of Scurvy which I desire to direct attention to.

In most of the fatal causes of Scurvy in which I made post
mortem examinations, I found disease of the large intestines of
greater or less extent, and they were found thickened, ulcers, and
eranulations of the mucous membranes ; sometimes the ulcers
perforating all the coats, and often patches of ecchymosis—
numerous black dots, sometimes over considerable parts of the
inner coat of the colon and rectum

In many of these cases there were not any external marks of
Scurvy about the body, or in the jaws—often the health good
during all the voyage. The first symptoms being of diarrhea,
in others, dysentery; many fatal cases had not any dysenteric
symptoms, merely ordinary diarrhea.

From having often seen in bodies of convicts who died some
months. after arrival, marks of healing of ulcers in the large
intestines—from often seeing the same condition of bowel from
men dying from other diseases shortly after arrival, 1 am con-
vinced that a most common complication of Scurvy is this con-
dition of the large bowels, and that it often is the only morbid ap-
pearance after death, and the only part affected with the local
effects of Scurvy during life.

If reference is made to the histories of Scurvy, it is always
accompanied by diarhcea and dysentery ; and large numbers of the
deaths under those heads were, I believe, really due to Scurvy,
of which the diarrhcea and dysentery were only symptoms and
complications. Read by this light, the deaths in convict ships
from Scurvy, were more than those entered as dying from that
disease, and its ravages in fleets and armies more than has been
supposed

That the condition I have described as affecting the large
intestines does arise from Scurvy, is borne out by other facts.

In the Merchant Service. 65

Dr. Menton, of Vienna, in 1776, in the philosophical transactions,
describes cancrum oris with disease of the large mtestines, pro-
duced by want of vegetables, and cured by their use.

Dr. Crampton, of Dublin, in 1818, descsibes exactly the same

appearances in the large intestines, and ‘the food of the poor
was universally bad during the two preceding years, the potatoes
wet, the wheaten flour musty.’
- In the Orphan Schools in Tasmania, I had several cases of
canerum oris, which in fatal cases was connected with disease of
the large intestines exactly similar to the morbid appearances
seen by me so constantly in Scurvy among convicts, and as de-
scribed as taking place at Vienna and Dublin.

I eradicated the dysentry, diarrhcea, and cancrum oris, at the
Tasmanian Orphan Schools, by attention to diet ; and vegetables
were given in all such cases.

Dr. Browning, a naval surgeon, who made several voyages to
Tasmania with convicts, in a small book, he published in 1842,
says: “ A youth was affected with a slight cough, and occasional
diarrhceea—but neither of his ailments was I disposed to regard
as connected with Scurvy. He was received as a patient into
the colonial hospital, and in three weeks was laid in his grave.
Nearly the whole of the (large) intestines, especially the liver, was
covered with ulceration, and discovered other marks of Scurvy,
very familiar to the medical officers of the colonial hospital at
Hobart Town.”

This was an example of many cases that fell in a similar way
victims to Scurvy in its obscurer forms.

It was my practice with convicts recently landed, to keep them
out of hospital if possible, as fresh air, moderate exercise, and
the greater freedom acted beneficially on them; and I am sure
many in that way recovered, whereas with the depressing influ-
ences of hospital restraint, on first landing, they would not have
got well.

I was so fully impressed with the existence of severe diseases of
the large intestines, of a scorbutic character, even without
diarrhcea or dysentery, that if from any cause a purgative was re-
quired during the first month or so after landing, I only ordered
the mildest and those that acted chiefly on the upper bowels.

That the ravages from obscure Scurvy have been great I am
convinced ; that they exist now far more than is supposed I fully
believe—certainly in the merchant and transport service. I trust
not in the navy.

But the remedies for the more declared and more obscure forms
are one and the same—vegetables, the great means of cure;
and on board ship, those means advised by Cook and Blane, for
the preservation of the health of seamen, should be enforced if
possible by law, for they will not only prevent Scurvy, even

I

66 Rates of Mortality

without vegetables or antiscorbutics, they will prevent these
diseases, as. fevers, &c., which would arise if vegetables are
issued, and, although the vessels were well supplied with stores
of all kinds.

I trust I have given sufficient reasons for bringing this subject
under your notice, and I hope that no time will be lost in putting
the merchant vessels that trade out of, and to this port, in a
condition, both of accommodation, dieting. and discipline, that the
health of the seamen may be secured, and that Scurvy in every
form which can be prevented, may never affect our seamen.

Arr. V.—On the Rates of Mortality and Expectation of Life in
New South Wales as eompared with England and other countries,
by M. B. Pell, Esq., B.A., Professor of Mathematics in the
University of Sydney.

[Read 6th November, 1867. ]

I WAVE undertaken the task of examining the reports of the
Registrar-General, from the year 1856 to the present time, and
the Census returns for the years 1856 to 1861, for the purpose of
ascertaining and exhibiting, as exactly as the data will permit,
the rates of mortality at various ages; so that a comparison may
be made between this colony and England, so far as regards the
effect of the climate and condition of the people upon the
duration of life. Another object which I had in view in under-
taking this investigation was the formation of a complete mortality
table, to serve as the basis of exact culculations respecting Life
Assurance, and Life Annuities. It is not my intention, however,
to enter upon that part of the subject in this paper.

I have often heard the question asked, whether this climate
is as favourable to the duration of life as that of England, and
I have heard it answered in a variety of ways. I have heard it
said that our climate is more than usually fatal to infants and
young children, and that it is favourable to old age. ‘To questions
of this kind the published returns afford no immediate answer.

In New South Wales. 67

The death rate in England, determined from an average of seven-
teen years, is 22°31 per thousand of the population: and that in
New South Wales, from an average of ten years, is 17:41 per
thousand. A comparison of these rates would seem to lead to
the conclusion that the climate of this colony is more favourable
to life than that of England; or at all events, that the conditions
on the whole are more favourable here than in the mother country.
But, in reality, as will appear, the percentage of deaths is small,
because of the comparatively small proportion of persons of
advanced age living in the colony. The death rate is small,
not altogether because the climate is healthy, but because the
average age of the people is less than in England. Without
taking into consideration the ages of the people living, and the
ages at which they die, it is scarcely possible to draw any con-
clusions from the comparisons of the mere gross per-centages of
deaths in different countries.

A very elaborate set of mortality tables, prepared at the
Registrar-General’s office, from the records of births and deaths
during seventeen years, and from the results of two censuses, was
published in England in the year 1864. In a country such as
England, where the existing population is the result chiefly of
natural increase, not much affected by emigration or immigration,
the increase from year to year proceeds according to laws which
remain almost constant during a considerable period; and of the
population living at any particular time, the numbers at the
several ages are connected by relations which may be considered
almost invariable. It was possible therefore in England, from the
results of two censuses taken at an interval of ten years, together
with the records of deaths durmg the intervening years, to
estimate with considerable accuracy, by the method of Finite
Differences, the numbers of the population and their ages, at
intermediate and subsequent years. In this colony, however,
where so large a proportion of the increase of the population is
due to immigration, which is variable and uncertain, the methods
alluded to can scarcely be applied. The natural proportion also
amongst the numbers living at different ages is entirely destroyed
here by the large influx of persons of mature age. These causes,
as well as the comparatively small total numbers, have rendered
the subject more than usually difficult to deal with, and at the
same time the results more uncertain than those obtained from
a larger experience in more populous and more settled countries.
The results, however, set forth in the tables appended to this
paper are, I believe, as accurate a representation of the effects
of the climate and circumstances of this colony upon the dura-
tion of life as the data at our disposal will afford.

My calculations are founded upon the returns of the Registrar-
General from the year 1856 to the present time, and upon the

68 Rates of Mortality

published results of the censuses of 1856 and 1861. In the

census book for 1856, the numbers living at each age from 0 to

60, are given, and I was at first disappointed at finding that for

the census of 1861 the numbers are given for periods of 5 years

only, for ages above 15 years. I ceased, however, to regret the

omission when J examined more particularly the return for 1856,

for it shows most clearly that the particular numbers are not at

all to be relied upon. It is evident that a large proportion of the

people gave their ages in round numbers only. There is a large

and indeed impossible preponderance of numbers at the particular

ages 20, 25, 80, 35, 40, 45,50. For imstance, the number at the

ages 39, 40, 41, are 2458, $454, 1908 respectively. At ages 44,

45, 46, the numbers are 2148, 4158, 2116. We have thus excessive

numbers at the ages 40 and 45, whereas it may be considered .
as almost certain that the numbers at ages from 40 to 45 would,

if stated truly, differ very little from one another. i have been
obliged therefore to ignore the particular numbers, and to take

the totals for periods of five years, and I have reason to believe
that the numbers so obtained may be relied upon as sufficiently
near the truth. The English tables to which I have alluded were
formed from similar data, the numbers at particular ages being
found by interpolation.

I have good reason for believing that the returns respecting
births and deaths may be relied upon. There is no doubt that
most of the deaths have been registered, and the corresponding
ages stated more accurately than at the censuses. Unfortunately,
howev er, in the tabulated returns the exact ages at death are
not stated for ages above 5 years, but for intervals of five years
only. ‘Thus the number of deaths each year between the ages
of 40 and 45 is given, but not the numbers at the particular
ages.

“Table A in the appendix to this paper shews the percentages
that die annually in New South Wales and in England of those
attaining the ages stated. The percentages of deaths at ages
under 5 years are given for every year of age. They were cal-
culated from the returns respecting births and deaths during 9
years, and quite independently of the censuses. They may be
relied upon therefore, as close approximations to the truth,
although they shew results differmg widely from those obtained
in other countries.

The per-centages for ages above 5 years are given for periods
of 5 years only. They were calculated from the results of the
censuses of 1856 and 1861, and from the records of deaths during
the intervening years. In order to test the accuracy of the
results so obtained, I made the calculations otherwise py assum-
ing the numbers determined by the census of 1861, to be the
true average of the numbers living at the several ages, during a

In New South Wales. 69

period of ten years—five years before the census and five years
after it, the average annual number of deaths being estimated
from the records “during the same period. This method is not
aitogether so satisfactory as the former, but the per-centages so
obtained differ so little from those given in table A as to leave
little doubt as to the general accuracy of the results there re-
corded. Ihave also performed the calculations separately for
for male and female lives, and I find a greater uniformity and
consistency amongst the results than I had expected in taking
averages from such small numbers.

Table A shews that the rates of mortality during infancy and
early childhood are much smaller here than in England. Of
infants born in New South Wales, about 103 per cent, die during
the first year—in England nearly 15 per cent. Of those who
attam the age of 1 year in New South Wales 4 8-10 per cent.
die before attaining ‘the age of 2 years—in England 6 3-10 per
cent. The rates of. mortality i in New South Wales continue to
be less than in England, but in a diminishing ratio, up to ages
between 30 and 35, when the rates become nearly equal. “Of
10,000 persons living between the ages of 20 and 25, 67 die
annually in New South Wales, and 89 in England. Of the same
number between the ages of 30 and 35, 101 die annually in New
South Wales, and 107 in England. Above the age of 35 the
mortality in New South Wales increases rapidly in comparison
with England. Of 10,000 persons living between 50 and 55, 240
die annually in New South Wales, and 195 in England. Of the
same number living between the ages of 70 and 75, the annual
number of deaths are in New South Wales, 1511, in England, 1165.
Above the age of 80, the numbers are 2573 in New South Wales
and 1705 in England.

The comparatively low rates of mortality in New South Wales
during infancy, childhood, and youth are due, no doubt ina great
measure, if not entirely, to the general well-being of the people.
A great number of infants and children die annually in England
through the poverty and miserable conditign of their parents, from
the insufficiency of suitable food and the want of proper clothing
and shelter ; and in many cases where these causes do not prove
immediately fatal, diseases are contracted which lead to premature
death. There is no doubt, moreover, that the practice of sending
children to work in the factories and the fields before their con.
stitutions have become sufficiently developed to bear the con-
finement or the fatigue. has contributed largely towards increasing
the number of deaths at early ages in England.

Whether the lower rates of mortality amongst children and
young people here are due entirely to their more favoured con-
dition, or partly to climate or other circumstances, we have no
data for determining with certainty. It is possible that this warm

70 Rates of Mortality

climate, independently of other conditions affecting health and
life, may be more favourable at an early age than the climate of
England, but not so well calculated for the development of a
strength of constitution likely to endure to old age.

In all countries, so far as | am.aware, for which exact mortality
tables have been formed for the sexes separately, it has been found
that on the whole females live longer than males, the expectation
of life of a female bemg always greater than that of a male of
the same age. It has been supposed that this arises partly, if not
entirely, from the greater dangers into which the tastes and
habits of men are likely to lead them, and their greater liability
to death or deterioration of health from dangerous or unhealthy
occupations. The English tables, however, prove most conelu-
sively that this is not the true explanation, and seem if anything -
to shew that the habits and occupations of men, during the period ~
when they are most likely to be actively employed, are more
favourable to the duration of life than those of women. Of
males born in England about 16 per cent. die in the first year,
and of females about 13 per'cent, in the same period. The rates
of mortality of female children continue lower than those of
males, but in a diminishing ratio, up to the age of about seven years
when they become equalized. <A similar difference between the
rates of mortality of males and females at these early ages exists
here, and was pointed out more than once by the late Registrar-
General. It may, indeed, be considered as an established fact,
depending in some way upon constitution, and not at all upon
external circumstances, that boys are more difficult to rear than
girls.
~ Above the age of seven years the rates of mortality of females
in England become slightly greater than those of males, ard con-
tinue so up to the age of about 40, when they again become
equalized. At ages above 40, the rates of mortality become
greatly in favour of females. As the period from the age of 7 to
that of 40 imcludes that during which men are the most likely
to be exposed to any dangers and unhealthy influences to which
they may be considered more particularly liable, it is evident that
their smaller average duration of life cannot be attributed to any
such causes. The general conclusion to which these facts seem
to lead, is that the constitution of women is naturally better able
to resist disease and death than that of men, but that the habits
and condition of women are less favourable to the duration of life
than those of men.

In New South Wales, for the earlier ages, we obtain similar
results. Of males born, 11 8-10 percent. die during the first
year, of females 9 8-10. The rates of mortality continue some-
what lower for females up to the age of 7 years, when they become
equalized as in England. But from this point the New South

In New South Wales. Hale

Wales table diverges considerably from the English in this respect,
the mortality amongst females being very sensibly less than that
of males from the age of 7 years upwards, the difference increas-
ing almost continuously with the increase of age. In England
the rates are nearly equal, but slightly in favour of the males
during a period of thirty-three years. Here the rates remain
nearly equal for a very few years, and then diverge with com-
parative rapidity. If there were anything ir regular or fluctuating
in these results, I might feel inclined to doubt them, and to
attribute the marked difference im this respect between the rates
here and in England, to some errer in the data, or in the methods
of estimation adopted ; but the uniformity and certainty of the
results precludes such a supposition, and leaves no doubt that
‘there is, from some cause or other, a greater difference here than
“In England between the rates of mortality of the two sexes. It
is to be observed also, that the period of life during which the
rates of mortality of males and females are nearly equal in
England, is the same as that during which, in this colony, the
rates are most nearly equal. This is to some extent a confirm-
ation of the truth of my results, and at the same time seems to
indicate that the fact observed in England, that the rate of mor-
tality of males, as compared with that of females is less between
the ages of 7 and 40 than at other ages, results from some
general law independently of local circumstances. The law seems
to act here, but greatly diminished in its manifestations by some
local cause increasing considerably the relative mortality of males
between those ages.

Table B shews how many out of 10,000 persons born, die during
each successive period, until they are all extinct, and also the
number living at each age, both for New South Wales and for
England. The numbers are given for each year up to the age of
5 years, and for higher ages at intervals of 5 years only. The
earlier part of the table. may be considered to apply to native-
born children only, for of those living at earlier ages, the num-
ber born elsewhere must be too small to affect the results in any
sensible degree. Of those living at the more mature ages, how-
ever, a large proportion were born out of the colony, and the
rates of mortality at those ages apply to the mixed population as
it exists. This table must, therefore, be considered to represent
the rate according to w hich 10,000 infants born in the colony will
probably die, upon the supposition, that as they advance in years
the rates of mortality amongst them will be the same as they now
actually are amongst the existing population, which contains a
large number of persons of Huropean birth, There are not at
present any data available for determining how far, if at all, the
rates of mortality of persons resident in New South Wales, but
born elsewhere, differ from those of the native born.

72 Rates of Mortality

Jt would appear at first sight, from Table B, that the rates of
mortality here are greater than in England, for ages above 25
years. Between the ages of 30 and 35, for instance, 350 die in
New South Wales and 817 in England ; but this is not because
circumstances generally here are less favourable to life at that
age, but because the comparatively smaller rates of mortality at
lower ages have left more alive at the age of 30. The per-centage
of deaths here is less at those ages, as appears from Table A; but
the total number of deaths is greater, as shown by Table B.
And even where the per-centage of deaths is greater in New
South Wales than in England, as between the ages of 45 and 50,
it does not necessarily follow—and this is a good instance of the
danger of drawing hasty conclusions from a mere comparison of
figures—it does not necessarily follow that c}-cumstances gener-
ally here are less favourable to life at those ages than in England.
On account of the low rates of mortality at the earlier ages, of a
given number born in this colony, a much larger number would
attain the age of 45 thanin England. Of these a considerable pro- —
portion would probably consist of persons of rather weaker
constitution than the average, who in England would have died
early, but have survived here, to swell the numbers of those
living at the age of 45, but at the same time to diminish their
average strength of constitution, and thus to increase the average
per-centage of deaths amongst them. In fact, the people in
England at the age of 45 may be subject to a less per-centage of
deaths, not because climate and other circumstances in that
country are more favourable to life at that age, but because the
weak ones have been weeded out and the hardy ones alone survive.
The argument in favour of this view of the case would have con-
siderable weight if the bulk of the persons living in the colony,
as well as those whose deaths have been registered, were native
born ; but as a large proportion of them were born in the British
Islands, in much the same proportion is the argument weakened.
And the question is pretty well set at rest by the results given
in Table B. If the circumstances of the colony were really more
favourable to life, even at the more advanced ages for which the
per-centages of deaths is greater than for the corresponding ages
in England, then of 10, 000 born there would at ev ery age, to the
end of the table, be more survivors than in England, whereas we
find that, although the numbers living at the several ages are at
first greater in New South Wales, the difference becomes gradually
diminished, until at the age of 65 the numbers living in the two
countries become nearly equal; and beyond that age the number
of survivors here becomes much less than in England, at the same
time that the per-centage of deaths becomes greater. There is
no doubt, then, that, under existing circumstances, the com-
parison is unfavourable to New South Wales; but there are

In New South Wales. 73

reasons which render it probable that in future years the rates of
mortality amongst old people will not be found so excessive. The
existing high rates are, perhaps, in some measure due to the
habits and character of the class of which a large portion of the
older inhabitants of the colony is composed.

In the Census Book for 1856, the total number only of those
living above the age of 60 is given, without any classification as to
age. I have been obliged, therefore, to distribute the total
amongst the particular classes by estimation founded upon the
more particular statements in the Census Book for 1861. This
renders the results exhibited in my tables for ages above 60 less
trustworthy than those corresponding to the preceding ages ;_ but
a comparison with the results obtained, as I have explained, from
the census of 1861 alone, and which therefore are not affected by
this possible source of error, shows that there can scarcely be
any material inaccuracy—certainly none of sufficient magnitude
to affect the truth of the general conclusions at which I have
arrived.

Table C gives the expectation of life at several ages for New
South Wales and for England, Sweden, and Belgium. As far as
the age of 60 I have no doubt that the results are near the truth
—quite enough for the purpose of general comparison with the
corresponding numbers for other countries. I do not feel so
much confidence in the results for ages above 60, but they are, 1
think, worth recording as first approximations.

T intend on some future occasion to lay before the society
tables showing the rates of mortality in Sydney and the suburbs.
The number of deaths per thousand of the population living,
indicates a much greater mortality in the metropolitan than in
the country districts ; but it will probably be found that this
is due, in some measure, to difference of proportion in the num-
bers of those living at particular ages, and not entirely to the
superior healthiness of the country districts.

I wish that I could undertake to furnish some answer to the
interesting question, whether the rate of mortality amongst the
native born population is greater or less than amongst those
born elsewhere—to foretel, in fact, whether the rates of mortality
generally will increase or diminish as the proportion of the popu-
lation born in the colony increases, and to ascertain whether a
native of England increases or diminishes his expectation of life
by coming to reside in New South Wales. I am afraid, however,
that I shall not be able to obtain the requisite information. It
exists in the Registry Office, but has never been collected and
tabulated, and could not now be made available without consider-
able expense. Much other information, which, if brought to
hght, could be of great value, is buried in the same way.

There are, of course, important advantages resulting to the

K

74 Rates of Mortality

community from a system of registration, quite independently of
the statistical value of the information recorded. Many
particulars however, which are recorded, can scarcely ever, I think,
prove of any utility in individual cases, although if arranged and
made available, they would be of great statistical value. Under
the present system, however, the number of particular questions
to be answered at the registration of a birth or a death serve only
to irritate the applicants, some of whom, perhaps, do not like to
be cross-examined about the past history of themselves or their
friends, to increase the expense of the department, and to cumber
the registers with a mass of detailed information, which, ifit is to
continue uncollected and unarranged, can scarcely ever prove of
value for any purpose. I do not by these remarks intend to
throw blame upon the Registrar-General or his predecessor, to
whose zeal and ability the colony is much indebted. I have no
doubt that they have done as much towards furnishing the Govyern-
ment and the public with statistical information as the means at
their disposal would permit, and that they would have been glad to
have rendered their tabulated returns more ample if it had been
in their power to do so.

TABLE A.—PER CENTAGE DYING ANNUALLY OF THOSE AT-
TAINING EACH AGE OF THE CLASS SPECIFIED.

New South Wales. | England.
2 o a 3
5 gi 5 i re
Fa a q 4 ra q
Age. ay a cs a a & | Age
0) 10°58 | 11:30 982 | 14.95 | 16:36 | 13°47 0
i 4°82 4°85 4:80 | 6:31, 6:43 6:19 il
2 2:09 2:07 210 | 3:54 3:55 3°54 2
3 1-58 1°61 154 | 2-40 2°38 2°42 3
4 1:13 isi TOON e 1c78 1-78 Tea 4
5 to 9 “49 “49 “49 95 ‘96 95 | 5to9
10—14. -30 "33 28 il “50 52 | 10—14
15—19 38 43 34] -65 63 ‘66 | 15—i9
20—24. ‘67 ‘73 60} 89 ‘87 90 | 20—24
25—29 ‘87 ‘91 Tp AMIT NaHS aye 1:00 | 25—29
30—34. 1-01 1:07 SON LOY /eill Tors 1:10 | 30—34
35—89 1:37 1:42 TOM DON at -20) 1-21 | 35—39
4044} 1:49 1-64 1-24.) 9 1:37 1:40 1:34 | 40—44
45—49 2.08 2°22 | 1:84] 1:60 1-68 151 | 45—49
50—54. 2°40 2°62 | 1:98 195 | 214 1:76 | 50—54
55—59 3°33 3:66 2°66 2°60 | 2.78 2°41 | 55—59
60—64 4:03 4:50 311| 3:60 3°80 3°38 | 60—64
65—69 7-28 7:73 639 | 5:23 5°52 494 | 65—69
70—74 | 913 | 10:06 679 | 7-82 8:23 740 | 70—74
75—79 |) /IS1L |, 1697 | 11-79) 11-65 1012-220) 10s ez —we
80 and | 2578 17:05 80 and

upwards upwards

In New South Wales. 75

This table may be read thus: Of 10,000 persons born in N. 8.
Wales, 1058 die before attaining the age of 1 year. Of 10,000
persons in N. S. Wales attaining the age of 1 year, 452 die under
the age of 2 years. Of 10,000 males in N.S. Wales attaining
ages from 5 to 9, 49 die before becoming a year older.

TABLE B.—OF THE NUMBERS LIVING AT THE AGE STATED,
THE NUMBER THAT DIE BEFORE ATTAINING THE NEXT AGE.

N.S. Wales England.
Age Living. Die. Living. Die.
) 10,000 1058 10,000 1495
il 8942 431 8505 537
2 8511 178 7968 282
3 8333 132 7686 185
4, 8201 93 7501 133
5 8108 iy 7368 343
10 7911 122 7025 179
15 7789 147 6846 218
20 7642 252 6628 288
25 7390 316 6340 303
30 7074 350 6037 317
35 6724 448 5720 334
40 6276 454: 5386 307
45 5822 581 5029 386
50 o241 599 4643 432
55 4642 723 4211 513
60 3919 764 3698 608
65 3155 1001 3090 710
70 2154 819 2380 769
75 1335 TAT 1611 710
80 588 432 901 515
85 156 136 386 271
90 20 1g) 115 93
95 iL i 22 20
100 0) — 2 =

This table may be read thus: Of 10,000 persons born in New
South Wales, 1058 die in the first year, and 8942 attain the age of
1 year. Of 7642 persons who attain the age of 20 in New South
Wales, 252 die before attaining the age of 25.

TABLE C.—EXPECTATION OF LIFE.

Age. N.S. Wales. England. Sweden. Belgium.
0 45°58 40°88 — 32°2
1 49°91 46°98 42°95 —
2 51°41 49°11 4492 —
3 51°50 49°90 46-11 —
A, 51°32 5OwW? 46°78 —
5 50°90 50:02 46:79 45°7

10 47-11 47°32 45:07 43°9

15 42.81 43°54 41°64: 40:5

20 38°59 89°88 38:02 37:3

25 34°81 36°56 34°58 34:7

30 31:25 30:28 31°21 32:0

30 27°30 29°99 28°03 28:9

76 Note on the Geology of the

Age. N.S. Wales. England. Sweden. Belgium.
40 24°07 2675 24-66 25'8
45 20°75 23°41 21°61 22°7
50 17-77 20°64 18°46 19°5
5d 14-74 16:94 15°53 16-4:
60 12:00 13°93 12°63 13°4
65 9°28 11°16 10°10 10°8
70 741 8:73 772 8*4
75 5°16 671 5°91 6-4
80 3°58 5°09 4:28 50

This table may be read thus: Persons in N.S. Wales who
have attained the age of 35 will, on the average, live 27 years
and 3-1Oths of a year longer.

Ant. VI.—Note on the Geology of the Mary River, Queensland. By
Rev. W. B. Clarke, M.A., F.G.S.
[Read 6th Nosema, 1867. |

On the 4th of last September, I read before the Society a paper
on the Auriferous prospects of Queensland. In that paper were
enumerated certain localities (along a linear range of 900 miles)
in which Gold was known to me to exist, or in which I anticipated
it would be found.

At the extremities of this line were the country between the
Mary River and Brisbane to the S.E., and that between the Clon-
curry and the Albert to the N.W.

Since September both these extreme portions of the area dis-
cussed have been brought into public notice as producing Gold—
Mr. Landsborough having reported Gold found at the head of the
Leichhardt River, west of the Cloncurry ; and a gold-field bemg
now beginning to be worked at Gympie Creek, about fifty- five
miles above Marybor ough, on the right bank of the Mary River.

The latter locality w ill probably attract more adventurers than
the former, and some persons may naturally inquire as to the
structure of the countr y-

It may, therefore, be useful to state that the Auriferous region
in that part of Queensland appears to be considerable, inasmuch

Mary River, Queensland. 77

as there are various known Auriferous localities along the ranges
between the Burnett River and Moreton Bay.

The Brisbane River and the Mary rise in an extension of the
great Bunya Bunya Range, which sends down its spurs north and
south, forming deep channels of drainage between them, These
spurs do not belong to the main Cordillera which is there known
as the Bunya Bunya Range, and trends north-westwardly, naving
however, its-gold patches as well as the meridional ranges that
diverge from it in direction along the Mary.

The whole of the broken region forming this area is composed
of rocks eminently characteristic of an Auriferous district. And
those who have studied the structure of such a district in New
South Wales could not fail to anticipate the finding of Gold some-
where along the Mary.

Granite and Syenite, with other Hornblendic rocks, form the
base of the system, supporting Chloritic, Talcose, Micaceous, and
other Slates traversed by Quartz lodes, and showing on their
fianks various members of the Carboniferous formation; such as
Conglomerates and Sandstones above, succeeded by Coal and
marine fossiliferous beds (as in New South Wales) on the lower
portion of the river; good coal, in a thick seam appearing on
Harvey's Bay, not far from the mouth of the Mary.

Besides the rocks before named, Diorites of various kinds form
prominent summits, as at Boople, on the Range forming the
easternmost boundary of the Ubi Ubi and Mary, and along the
Bunya Bunya and branch Ranges.

This rock, by the way, is nearly identical in composition with
that which forms the old Dioritic bluff at the south-western ex-
tremity of Prospect Hill, near Parramatta, having some of its
varieties more like the rock of the bluff at Bowrell, or Gibraltar
Gap, above the Fitzroy Railway Tunnel.

Basalt and Serpentine, with some Porphyry and Trachyte, also
occur along the Mary (as at Widgee Widgee) and on the Brisbane,
and north and south of their sources.

At Kilkiven, about thirty or thirty-five miles west of the Mary
the slates are traversed by quartz reefs holding gold and copper,
the proportion of the former bemg considerable. Iron ore
also abounds in this region. The mineral district of the Mary is,
therefore, one of considerable promise.

Probably from the physical features of this broken country,
there are tew wide tracts for the working of alluvial gold, which
must be patchy ; but so far as geological indications go, there is
an extraordinary combination of such features as characterise a
well-developed Auriferous region.

Mr. Davidson, the Gold Commissioner, reported on the 28th
October, just nine days ago, that out of a small water channel in
a ridge of Diorite strewn with quartz-drift, three men had col-
lected in the preceding week, 180 ounces of gold.

78 On the Mutual Influence

In examining my collection of rocks from the basin of the Mary
I find, as in many gold localities in this Colony, there is a great
abundance of Sulphide of Iron, especially in the hardened Slates
and Diorites. From this mineral there is, no doubt, a supply of
small gold. But what may be the final result time alone can
determine.

P.S.—March Ist, 1868.—Time has determined, by disclosing an
abundantly rich field, with heavy nuggets, along the Mary, where
now there is a population of many thousand persons.

Arr. VII—On the Mutual influence of Clock Penduluns, by G. R.
Smalley, Esq., Government Astronomer.
[Read 4th December, 1867. |

Tur remarks which I am about to offer upon the present subject
were suggested to me by the perusal of one of the meteorological
essays of the celebrated French Philosopher, Arago.

The essay in question is entitled “The Phenomena of Turning
Tables ;’ and, had it been written by a less emiment mathe-
matical philosopher, I should have hesitated before introducing
this title in the present paper.

Without, however, expressing any opinion upon the so called
phenomenon of “table turning,” yet I think it will be useful as
well as interesting if I give Arago’s remarks, published in his
“ Meteorological Essays,’ in 1855, translated under the superin-
tendence of General Sabine, with an introduction by Baron
Humboldt.

Arago says—‘“ Failures have never produced any discourage-
ment in public opinion in matters supposed to relate to animal
electricity. An example of this has shown itself in regard to
the phenomena known under the name of turning tables.

“They were attributed unhesitatingly to a supposed faculty
possessed by animated beings, of developing in most bodies a
peculiar kind of electricity.

of Clock Pendulwns. 79

“T had to speak on this subject at the Academy, on the
occasion of a communication from its correspondent, Monsieur
Séquin,—known by the important invention of tubular boilers.
It was my duty to speak as I did; but I cited old experiments
by Ellicott, clockmaker, mentioned in the Philosophical Transac-
tions, which made the greatest analogy with the admissible
accounts given of turning tables.

“What is apparently most extraordinary and most difficult to
explain in the phenomenon of the tables, is the circumstance that
by means of, it may be said, infinitely small impulses, impressed
by the finger on the mass of wood of which the table consists, a
very considerable degree of motion should at length be imparted
to the table. Well, then, I would remark that in Mr. Ellicott’s
experiments, two pendulum clocks, enclosed in separate cases,
were suspended from a wooden plank affixed to the same wall, at
a distance of 234 English inches from each other.

“ At first, only one of these two clocks was going. The second
clock was at rest. After a certain time, this second clock was
found to have been set going by the zmperceptible vibrations trans-
mitted to its pendulum from the pendulum of the first clock,
through the medium of the intervening solid bodies. A very
singular circumstance is that, after a certain time longer, while
the pendulum of the second clock (the one which had at first
been at rest) vibrated in the largest are which the construction
of the clock would permit, the pendulum of the first clock, the
one which at first was the only one going, had arrived at a state
of entire rest.

“J will not enlarge upon the deductions which may be drawn,
and which really have been drawn, from the facts just mentioned,
because my object has only been to show that there already
existed in science, instances of communicated motion analogous
to those which have recently been presented by turning tables,
and of which the explanation does not require any of those
mysterious influences to which recourse has been had in the case
of the tables.”’

I have quoted the foregoing Essay, which (with such an author)
is certainly entitled to respect; not with a view to discuss or
overturn an opinion upon the question of “table turning,’ but
because it renders more complete and interesting the results of
those investigations which I am about to present to you.

And here I may observe that my own experiments have been
carried on without any knowledge of those made by Mr. Ellicott,
beyond the reference made to them by M. Arago. Indeed, it is
only since I completed my own experiments, that I succeeded in
finding a detailed account of the others in the Philosophical
Transactions for the year 1739, and it is remarkable that whilst
the actual results arrived at in both cases are very similar, yet, so

80 On the Mutual Influence

far as I can gather, there is a considerable difference in the cir-
cumstances under which they were made.

Mr. Elhcott appears to have confined his experiments to a
fixed medium between the two clocks, viz., the base on which
they stood, or the fixed rail by which they were supported. I
have conducted my investigations with media of different kinds
and dimensions, varied as much as the limited amount of time
devoted to them would admit of.

The balls of each of the pendulums employed by the former
weighed 23 Ibs.; the cisterns of mercury in my clocks weigh
respectively 10 lbs. and 83 lbs; the clock-weights themselves are —
each of them 9 lbs. and the clocks are superior mean time clocks
ordinarily employed in the work of the Observatory.

The total number of experiments is forty, and in making them,
every care and precaution was taken.

For the sake of convenience I shall designate these clocks as
No. 1 and No. 2, the latter bemg the one originaily at rest; the
former, the one set in motion by the hand.

The only foundation which, at the time, could be made avyail-
able for the experiments was a stone slab, detached from the floor,
on which the clock No. 1 usually rests. As there was not room
enough for both clocks on this slab, a solid plank of well-seasoned
cedar, weighing about 17 lbs., was placed on it, and the position
of the clocks upon it so arranged that there was no unequal -
pressure on any part of the stone slab.

In detailing the experiments, I propose on the present occasion.
to select one only from each of the important groups—consider-
ing that one as a fair type of the whole.

Exp. 1.—In the first experiment, clock 1 was placed on the
stone slab, and clock 2 on the floor, but quite unconnected with
the stone—the interval being about one inch. The pendulum of
1 was made to oscillate through an are of 6 degrees. Clock 2
was watched for about 70 minutes, but there was no appearance
of motion.

This experiment was instituted for the purpose of determining
whether any effect was produced by the mutual attraction of the
pendulums, independently of a connecting medium.

Exp. 2.—In experiment 2 the cireumstances were as in the
last case, only that clock 2 was brought into close contact with
the stone slab on which clock 1 rested. There was no perceptible
eftect.

Exps. 3 and 4,—In experiments 3 and 4, both clocks were
placed on the solid plank, as before described. The bases of the
clocks were first placed about 2 inch apart, and then brought into
contact. In neither experiment was the slightest effect per-
ceptible.

In all these experiments it will be opserved that there was no
upper medium.

of Clock Pendulwms. 81

I next made a series of experiments, all of which tended to
show that the effects were greatly imcreased by the removal of
the weight belonging to clock 2, I presume from the diminished
resistance to so delicate a motive power as that under inyestiga-
tion. I think, therefore, I may fairly confine myself to those
experiments in which the weight of clock 2 was removed.

Exp. 5.—In experiment 5 three slabs of solid cedar, whose
entire weight amounted to 13 lbs., were firmly nailed together, and
placed on the tops of the clocks, whose feet were placed at about ?
inch apart. The pendulum of clock 1 was set vibrating through
an are of 6 degrees, and after an interval of about 16m., the
hands of clock 2 were set in motion, the pendulum attaining a
maximum are of vibration of 38 degrees nearly. The pendulum
of clock 1, whose oscillations had been rapidly diminishing, came
to rest 14m. afterwards.

Exp. 6.—Experiment 6 was made under the same circumstances
only that the three pieces of cedar board were placed loosely
one upon the other, the nails being removed. In this case the
maximum are of vibration of clock 2 was only 1 3-10 degrees—
thus showing plainly that the medium should be a rigid body.

In the subsequent experiments my time would not permit me
to wait for the maximum are of vibration of clock 2—though
most of them had been previously made with the weight of clock
2, on, and with similar results.

I therefore contented myself with recording the are of vibration
of pendulum 2 at the expiration of 5m. after that of 1 was set in
motion.

This arrangement is quite sufficient for our present inquiry.

Exp. 7.—The upper medium employed was a bar of light
well-seasoned pine, 4 feet in length, and weighing 3 lb. 6 oz.

After an interval of 5m. the are of vibration of pendulum 2
was 30’ nearly.

Exp. 8.—In experiment 8, a bar of the same material, 2 feet
long, weighing 1 lb. 12 oz. was employed. After 5m. the arc of
vibration of pendulum 2 was about 27’.

Exp. 9.—In experiment 9 there was a similar bar 1 foot long,
weighing 12 oz. nearly. The arc of vibration was 26’ nearly.

Tn each of these three experiments, which are very important,
the are of vibration of pendulum 1 had been reduced from 6° to
5° 56’ nearly.

Exp. 10.—In experiment 10, a brass tube 3 feet 10} inches
long, weighing 13 ounces, was employed as the upper medium,
under the same circumstances as before. Here the arc of vibra-
tion of No. 2, after 5 minutes, was 32’2"—that of No.1, 5°35’

Exp. 11. —In experiment 11, a very light rod of wood, 2 feet

82 On the Mutual Influence

63 inches long, weighing ? ounce, was employed. The are of —

vibration of No. 2, after 5 minutes, was rather more than 6'—
that of No. 1, 5°45’

Exp. 12.—In experiment 12, a brass chain, about 94 feet long,
weighing 54 ounces, was found to produce no sensible effect.

Exp. 13.—In experiment 13, I employed a piece of Manila
rope, about 14 feet 2 inches long, weighing 5 ounces. After 5m.,
pendulum of clock 2 showed an are of vibration of 30’; that
of clock 1 vibrated through 5° 40’

Exp. 14.—In the last experiment which I shall refer to, I used
a bar of lead weighing 243 lbs., about 18 inches long. At the
expiration of 5m., the pendulum of clock 2 oscillated through an
are of 31’30"; that of 1 through 5°40,’

This is the heaviest upper medium we have yet considered: but
the effects produced are very small compared with others of
lighter material. Insumming up the results of these experiments,
I arrive at the following conclusions :—l1st, that this observed
phenomenon is not to be accounted for by any mutual attraction
between the pendulums. 2ndly, that there is not sufficient evi-
dence to make it probable that it is due to any direct statical
ressure. 3rdly, that it may reasonably be accounted for on the
supposition of “imperceptible vibrations” propagated through
some connecting medium between the clocks, and that the extent
of the effect produced, depends upen the nature of the medium
employed.

The experiments appear to prove, that in order to ensure their
success,it is necessary there should be a medium between the feet of
the clocks as well as between the tops; and if we examine
the results obtained by placing different media between the tops
of the clocks, we perceive that they are not solely dependent
upon the weight of the medium. We observe that the same three
solid boards placed loosely one on the other, give different results
when they are firmly secured together. We observe that this
compact wooden mass produces much larger effects than a bar of
lead nearly double its weight.

We observe that whilst a light deal rod weighing six ounces
only, causes a perceptible effect on clock 2, none is produced by
a chain of nearly the same weight; yet slightly perceptible effects
are produced by a piece of rope of nearly equal weight.

The brass tube, weighing 13 ounces, causes larger oscillations
than other media of greater weight ; and lastly we observe that
the three bars of pine whose lengths and weights are as the
numbers 1, 2, 3, give nearly the same results, and that their
magnitudes, though xo¢ proportional, yet appear to depend upon
the length of the bars,

2. ne

of Clock Pendulums. 83

Whilst I think I have said enough to show that such
phenomena as have been described do really exist, and that a
more complete and elaborate series of experiments will be of great
scientific interest as wellas of high practical utility, yet I do not
assert that the theory proposed is to be hurriedly admitted. I
confess that my own convictions are strongly in favour of the
theory of “imperceptible vibrations,” for it appears to me not
only the most simple and rational of any that can be advanced,
but is supported by experiments, so far as they have been carried.
Nor is it without analogy. Take the case of Sound for instance.
We know that if a musical note be produced near stringed in-
struments, those strings capable of producing the same note, will
immediately begin to vibrate. Again, we know that ever so
slight a disturbance in a sheet of water will propagate undulations
sufficient to produce motion, at a remote distance from the point
where that disturbance was first effected.

I can perceive nothing more inconceivable in the dynamical
solution of the phenomenon in question than in the existence of
the phenomenon itself, and I think the chief matter of surprise is,
that the fact is not more generally known; and that, so far as I
~ can learn, 128 years have passed over without Mr. Ellicott’s
investigations having been systematically pursued.

—_— ——_ 2 —

ERRATA TO MR. KREFFT’S PAPER.
ee gene!

THE common Bandicoot, Perameles obesula, and the forty-spotted Pardalote
have been accidentally omitted, and the sheet sent to press without a final
correction being made; I therefore ask the reader’s indulgence, and draw
attention to the following Addenda et Errata :—

At page 35, after Pardalotus affinis, to be added Pardalotus quadragintus
Forty-spotted Pardalote.
page 33, line 4, after Perameles gunnii add Perameles obesula

yt gb PAT at eer for diemensis ............ read diemenensis.
POO; 3 Gio} Apecousectaon SKC MILUGG? UWeenntoabod » organicum.
OO) He el OO iMate iene sint 7 CRRHOEUIES Sconnecas » Graucalus.
ay cir . a ara seaaoe WL ALEMENSIS) eee. ,», diemenensis.
op) fh + CAO mea Pa DOr neat Ra Gr; ained) ee » Ground.

s — Giop = Si eee hn le see Sy OCHO 66. cnecoacooses » mauris.
oO; 5 BO eens chs », Authochera......... » Anthochera.
se A a OMEN sace tte 59 COCTID shoscacosvon » Cacatua.
Bei PA 2D, eee 5) CHEUAAOSIS soccnasccade 5, diemenensis.

oe a » 26, after Emu, add extinct; no specimens having been
observed for thirty years.

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De 38; 55 SA etn es 5, cattaractes ......... » catarrhactes.
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AG) SOO MMPI MOT ase asin s. ys) ID CONUC re vaio ce » Sterna.

5) 0, COME uoOe canna edie SCENUULG Re eee » Sternula.

ey SBI cone @ieoandonoticce, ep) WE) “vopsoopaasdoson0d Reo oj agua

4 340; 5 Sean sae sp GHETREWSOS. gas boovaacc », adtemenensis.
35, 40} 5 Sh BNI eas a) LEU” Bonoacatosen » Hinulia,

yl GAS Rien 25, fe pci tes Aig AD Gee aPRRB CIE to Sutin. cae siete

According to some residents a species of Flying Phalanger is found in certain
parts of the island, said to be introduced from Victoria ; if this statement is
correct, the animal should be included in the list. The Dingo’s existence in
Tasmania is doubtful, no settlers ever obseryed wild dogs.

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