Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria During the Years (Volume 6 ) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1865 Excerpt: ... years 1837 and 1838, amounted to 1,462,800. The land would have been totally unproductive without irrigation. In this last instance the rental paid to the government in two years more than covered the cost of the original outlay. There is an annual balance of revenue over expenditure of 167,136. The area irrigated is 351,501 acres. The author quoted copiously from Colonel Baird Smith's work on "Irrigation and Drainage in Italy, and also India," and from a return by Major Baker on similar questions. Art. XXVIII.--On a Genus of Coleoptera hitherto unfound in Victoria--By William Henry Archer, Esq. Read 16th May, 1864. I beg to introduce to your notice this evening an interesting specimen of a beetle, which, as far as I can at present learn, has been hitherto unrecognised within the limits of Victoria. I obtained it from the neighbourhood of the St. Arnaud silver mines, where it was found under an old log, with about a dozen others of varying size, by the Director of the mines, whom I had requested to look out for Natural History objects. When I received them, they were in a small tin canister. Some were dead, and had become offensive. The survivors I found proceeding deliberately to eat each other; and to put an end to this Kilkenny-cat process, I gave them all a protecting quietus. The specimen before you is two and a-half inches in length, and about three-quarters of an inch in breadth, a size for a beetle which may well be termed gigantic. From its structure, you will perceive that it has powers of attack and defence of a most formidable character. My friend, the accomplished naturalist, Count Castlenau, or, as he is quoted authoritatively in scientific writings, M. Laporte, states that: "This beautiful insect belongs to the order Coleoptera, t...