Diam maj. 16, min. 13, alt. 19 lines.

Hab. Cook Town, Endeavour River, north-east coast of Australia. (Mr. Charles Coxen.)

3.-HELIX (RHytida) LangleYANA.

Shell largely umbilicated, discoid, thin, very finely and obliquely sculptured, not shining, pale horn brown, spire depressed, suture channelled, whorls 3, the three upper ones with the sculpture much rougher, the last large and roundly convex, aperture oblique, lunately ovate, peristone simple, acute, margins distant, columellar margin slightly reflected at the edge of the umbilicus.

Diam maj. 41, min 31, alt. 2 lines.

Hab. Macquarie Harbour west coast of Tasmania.

Of this species I have only seen one specimen; it was collected at the above locality some three years ago by Mr. W. Petterd; it comes near to Helix Milligani and other species of the same genus.

* 4.-HELIX (CHAROPA) NUPERA.

Shell umbilicated, rather flatly discoid, thin, finely and regularly and obliquely striated; interstices very smooth, white, spire flat, whorls 4, moderately convex, the last roundly convex, suture channelled, base convex, umbilicus perspective, aperture nearly vertical, semilunar, peristome simple, thin, and regular.

Diam. maj. 11, min. 1, alt. 2.

Hab. King George's Sound, south-west coast of Australia, collected by Mr. G. Masters.

* 5.-PUPA (VERTIGO) ROSSITERI.

Shell dextral, rather oblong, thin, shining nearly smooth, white, hyaline, spire turretted, apex obtuse, whorls 5, roundly convex, the last about quarter the length of the whole shell, aperture

squarely oval, armed with five teeth, one on the centre of the body whorl thickened and of a lamellated form; second on the columella on the upper side rather sharp; third small and thin at the lower part of the columella; fourth on the basal margin of the interior of the aperture thick and elongated; fifth on the inner upper side of the outer lip rather obsolete; peristome slightly expanded, thin. Length 14; breadth lines.

Hab., Picton, Rope's Creek, Lake Macquarie, and Wingham, upper Manning River, New South Wales, (Brazier).

This species is often taken for a variety of Vertigo Strangei, Pf., the true typical species of Vertigo Strangei are sinistral, more elongated, and the aperture oval, studded with seven teeth. Dr. Cox in his "Monograph of Australian Land Shells, 1868," figures my species as a variety of V. Strangei, in plate 14, fig. 18, 18 A; both species are found in company.

6.-AMNICOLA PETTERDIANA.

Shell conical, thin, yellowish brown under a dark epidermis, whorls 6, convex, suture impressed, apex acute, peristome thickish, aperture vertical, somewhat ovate, margins continuous, thickened, and detached from the body whorl.

Length 11, breadth lines.

Hab. Scottsdale, Ringarooma, and Emu Bay, Tasmania; Messrs. Petterd and Legrand.

* 7.-AMNICOLA SIMSONIANA.

Shell turbinately conical, thin, horny, green under a brownish epidermis, whorls 6, roundly convex, spire acuminated, apex roundly obtuse, aperture vertical, sub ovate, margins continuous, peristome thin, slightly expanded, channel between the columella margin and the body whorl.

Length 11, breadth lines.

Hab. Brighton, near Hobart Town, Tasmania, (Mr. Simson.)

*8.-PLANORBIS MERIDIONALIS.

Shell discoid, light horny brown, faintly marked with oblique lines of growth, sharply carinated at the periphery, whorls 3, the last large, more than half the size of the whole shell; large in front, moderately convex, spire depressed, base convex, depressed in the centre of the whorls, aperture oblique, hatchet shaped, peristome thin, acute, margins approximating the right joined to the left by a thin deposit of calius.

Diam. maj. 12, min. 14, alt. line.

Hab. Ouse River, Tasmania, Mr. Masters.

A member exhibited a beautiful specimen of dendritic stone from Rooty Hill, which was left for exhibition with the Society.

Two volumes of Bentham's "Florn Australiensis" presented to the Society by the Government, were ordered to be suitably acknowledged.

Mr. Brazier exhibited a specimen of native food from the Marshall Islands, composed of pandanus and farina of some plant resembling the Taro. He also exhibited a fungus from the Loyalty Islands, much relished by the missionaries (an Agaricus growing on the roots of trees). Also the fungus from the same place, which is largely imported into China.

MONDAY, 26TH APRIL, 1875.

WILLIAM MACLEAY, ESQ., PRESIDENT, in the Chair.

NEW MEMBER PROposed.

A. R. Fraser, Esq., New England.

MEMBERS ELECTED.

Edwin Chisholm, Esq., Surgeon; C. A. Fraser, Esq., New England.

Dr. Cox read the following paper on the Stone Implements of Australia and the South Sea Islands :

The Aboriginals of this vast Continent and adjacent Isles show no exception to the almost universal custom of making use of stone as a means of searching for their food, and also for making the necessary weapons of offence and defence. The few specimens of these rude implements, which I have laid before you this evening, are chiefly those which have been used by the natives of Australia, some are from New Caledonia, a few from New Zealand, others from the Fiji Group, the Loyalty Islands, several from the Solomon Isles, and a few from New Guinea. It is now very difficult to obtain specimens peculiar to New South Wales, although it is no great time since these implements were to be got in abundance. I can myself remember seeing them in the hands of the greater number of the natives of the tribes which once inhabited in large numbers the Valley of Mulgoa near Penrith ; but so thoroughly has all trace of them now disappeared that I have searched that district in vain for specimens peculiar to the tribes, and if the total disappearance of them has taken place within the short space of less than thirty-five years, I think, unless some record of these rude relics of the inhabitants of this land be made, future generations may doubt their having existed at all. In Victoria they have totally disappeared from use, and but comparatively few specimens are left on record. I have never yet been able to procure a specimen from Tasmania, although I have offered liberal rewards for them. In Western Australia stone

hatchets, knives and spears (such as I show you) are still found in the hands of the dark tribes, and also in Queensland.

The hatchets found in Western Australia appear to point to one of the lowest types of creation, their stone implements being so primitive that, unless the stones were found in gum and fixed to handles, I scarcely think it would be credited that they had ever been used for the important duties they had to serve. Some are said still to be found in the hands of the natives of the northern part of South Australia, and also in the back rivers of Queensland, especially to the north-west, where fine specimens can be procured with handles fixed to them with a gum resin, just as they were originally found throughout the Continent.

Most of the specimens from New South Wales which I show you have been ploughed up in various districts such as Dapto, Baulham Hills, Monaro, Ashfield, and Kurrajong, while others have been dug out of the beds of oyster shell, found so abundant near the mouths of our principal rivers, under shelving rocks, evidently the scene of many a cooking fire. I presume the hatchets got mixed with these masses of shells by their making use of them to open the large mud oyster, which, judging from the abundance of the shells, were then to be found in quantities, or it might have been, that it was around the fire that they manufactured their implements, melting and moulding the wax which was to secure the handle to the stone. Others of the tomahawks I have received from the Wollombi, having been dug from the bottom of the large caves in that district, on the arched roofs of which are still to be found impressions of the "Red Hand" and other figures. Other hatchets have been found in the crevices of rocks about the locality where they were sharpened and the edge ground. Of these localities I shall speak presently. Generally one or more of these hatchets were to be found in the graves of the natives, but unfortunately almost all of the old mounds have disappeared, and it requires a keen eye to discover them. It seems to have been one of the native customs of the New South Wales blacks to bury the goods and belongings of the men of the tribes with the bodies, and it is in this way that I account for their being ploughed up

from time to time.