WELLINGTON PHILOSOPHICAL

New Zealand Mail, Issue 45, 2 December 1871, Page 6

WELLINGTON PHILOSOPHICAL

SOCIETY. The last meeting for the year was held on Saturday, Dr Hector being in the chair. After some formal business, the chairman announced several valuable presentations to the Museum and Library. Among these are copies of Professor Owen's latest works on the moa, and the Transactions of the Zoological Society of London. We observed also a piece of obsidian, and several ferns from the Island of St. Paul, presented by an officer of H.M.S. Blanche, who was one of the castaways from the ill-fated Megtera; also, some skulls of seals brought by the officers of the Blanche from the Auckland Islands.

Dr Hector reported the successful introduction, for the first time, of English trout into the streams of the North Island, and made some remarks on the enormous quantity of fish that was cast up on the sea line by the late S.E. gale. Among them was hardly any of the kinds usually obtained by the fishermen. Of eleven species collected, three are new to science, and six others had never formerly been found in the seas round New Zealand. He hoped that a small work, which is at present in course of publication from the Museum, will assist in extending our knowledge of the fishes, as it gives a scientific description of each species and figures of about forty species that are used as food. The first paper was by Mr Darnell, of Nelson, on flint flakes he had found at the Cape of Good Hope, specimens of which were exhibited to the meeting. The chief object of the communication was to point out the similarity of the conditions under which these flakes were formed to the chist flake deposits of New Zealand, which contain moa bones; CJnlike the Maoris, however, the aborigines at the Cape are not known to have used stone implements within historical times. Some discussion ensued as to the manner in which these flakes were formed, Dr Hector maintaining that they must have frequently been formed accidentally, where masses of chert were used in the cooking ovens, and from flakes thus formed, the best would be selected for knives. Mr Mantell stated that be had never seen stone of a kind that wouh l " fl>" when heated and quenched with water, used by the natives for their ovens, and that in the ancient ovens he had examined, the chert only was found in flakes.

Captain Hutton read a paper on the chitons of New Zealand, in which he described the anatomy of these curious shell fish, and pointed out that New Zealand is very rich in them, there being twenty-one species, three of which are new. Mounted specimens of all but one species was on the table. Four papers, by Mr Skey, were then read in abstract. One of them described a method of purifying turbid water by the addition of a small quantity of saline solution, and another one being on a new plan for a magnetic siesmograph for. registering slight earthquakes. Dr Knox presented some further dissections of the New Zealand bats, and read some descriptive notes. Dr Hector drew attention to the skliful manner in which these delicate preparations had been made, and stated that the Museum is indebted to Dr Knox for a large number of similarspecimens, whichrequireagreat amount of accurate knowledge and long practice for their production. The meeting was then adjourned till the period for the annual meeting in January.