A mineral from New Zealand, said to be chromic iron, presumably from its occurrence with serpentine, being found to contain no chromium, was analysed under my direction by Mr. F. J. Cairns with results given below. The mineral occurs both massive and crystallised in a light yellowish-green serpentine, with which it is so intimately mixed that it was found impossible to pick a specimen for analysis that was entirely pure, though as far as possible the distinct crystals were taken. These crystals are about one-fourth of an inch in diameter, and all noticed have the form of the rhombie dodecahedron. The specific gravity is 4·67, and the colour iron-black.

The first volume of the Transactions of the Geological Society of Glasgow contains the following notice of Zeolites as occurring in the banks of the Rye Water:—"About one-and-a-quarter miles below Howrat Toll-bar, white and red stilbite occur, small white prehnites, with fine pellucid quartz approaching to hyalite, and calcite."

Through the cordial assistance and generous hospitality of Mr. Brown, of Dunipaee, formerly a member of the Mineralogical Society, I have lately been enabled to add very largely to the list of mineral localities in the Western Islands of Scotland.

This mineral tar, which, from its elasticity, though somewhat weak, resembles elaterite, is found at the Craig Well, near Dingwall.

It is an intensely black, lustrous, sticky substance, of the consistency of tar, and from its being associated with albertite it may be looked upon as a variety of that asphalt.

The samples analysed came from the bottom of a small loch. No. 1 was of a yellow-gray eolour, even in texture, and readily broken down between the fingers.

No. 2 was distinctly red, and marked with dark spots. It broke down readily, and was more dense than No. 1.

No. 3 sample was red in colour, with dark brown and red particles throughout the mass.

It is my unpleasant duty this evening to retire from the honourab!e position in which I was placed by the members of the Mineralogical Society three years ago. Before doing so I would say a few words on a subject which has demanded grave consideration from myself, and doubtless also from my predecessors in the Chair : namely, as to whether any formal address should be delivered by your President during his term of office.

In a list of the known falls of meteorites published by Meunier in 1884, is a record of the fall of a meteoric stone at Chartres, Eure-et-Loir, France, in September 1810, and as authority is quoted the catalogue of the meteorites of the Muséum d'histoire Naturelle at Paris. No stone of that name is mentioned in the printed list of the Paris collection published in 1882, but according to a later manuscript five grams were in the Museum in the year 1885. The authenticity of the fall is accepted in the lists since published at Vienna and at Harvard College. No representative of the fall, however, appears in any other list of the better known meteorite collections, and it seemed that only the fragment at Paris had escaped destruction. Lately, however, on receiving from Professor Lewis a manuscript list of the meteorites under his charge, I was agreeably surprised to find that a piece weighing no less than 60 grams of a Chartres stone was in the Cambridge collection. The specimen and its label were sent to me for inspection, and they suffice in my opinion to prove that the Chartres fall of September 1810 is mythical, and owes its origin to a simple error of memory.

A Remarkable series of crystallised calcites from Cumberland which have been found during the present year deserve description, both on account of their size and beauty, and also by reason of their peculiar form.

The crystals, although obtained from a small area, exhibit great variety of habit and appearance, and fall naturally into the seven groups which are described below. Of these the most remarkable consists of a series of magnificent heart-shaped twins, somewhat similar to the rare but well-known "butterfly twins" of Eyam, in Derbyshire; they result from the same mode of twinning as the latter, but are far larger and more beautiful than any of the Derbyshire twins, frequently measuring four inches in breadth. There are also crystals which exactly resemble the true butterfly twins of Eyam, and others which arc very similar to the rectangular twinned prisms of Wheal Wrey in Cornwall. A second and very rare twin law is also represented among these specimens, in which the rhombohedron, whose edges are truncated by the cleavage planes, acts as twin-plane.

In the basaltic lavas of Iceland certain porphyritic crystals of unusually large dimensions, occur embedded in the matrix of the rock, and from an early date have received the notice of writers on the geology of that island. Amongst these authors might be mentioned :—Professor Forchhammer, Dr. F.A. Genth, M. A. Damour, Prof. Zirkel, M. P. Schirlitz, and M. R. Bréon.

Many years ago I requested Mr. Swift to make for me a first-rate Binocular Petrological Microscope. The centering of the stage by screws was, I suppose, as good as it could be made. I found it unsatisfactory when using high powers on small crystals. A centering nose-piece answered no better. Only by the simultaneous rotation of the polariser and analyser by hand, little by little, could I keep the interference figures of small crystals in the field of view, or feel certain that the figures had not left it during rotation owing to the excentricity of the centering.