Proceedings of the Royal Society for the month of July, 1878

The monthly evening meeting of the Society was held on Tuesday, the 9th July, His Excellency the Governor in the chair.
-The Secretary read a paper by Mrs. Charles Meredith, descriptive of the form and character of several specimens of the sea Annelida, or "sea worms" found in the kelp at Prossers' bay, and representative of the families of Nereididele, Serpulidae and Terebellidae. Generically they are to be classed under Nereis, Sabella, and Terebella, but it is probable that as to species they are new to science. All the species referred to in the paper were depicted by the writer in beautifully executed water-colour drawings.
-Mr. T. Stephens read "Notes on a visit to the Hot Spring near South Port in 1877." -His Excellency thought Mr. Stephens' suggestion of decomposing pryites being the source of heat in this case, was probably correct, but he was not certain that this could apply to the hot water and mud springs in New Zealand, which extended over a very large area. These springs, which he had visited many years ago, presented some very peculiar features; for instance, an individual seated in one with water at a comfortable temperature, might hold in his hand a net containing vegetables, and, without moving, could cook them by dipping the net in a boiling spring close to him. The deposit between the springs seemed to be a sort of tufa, or a mixture of lime and silex. The formation of the country in the immediate vicinity, appeared to be recent, and as far as he (the Chairman) could recollect there was no rock in situ, though Plutonic and Metamorphic rocks existed in the neighbourhood.
-The Secretary remarked as to boiling springs, and similar phenomena that the Yellowstone region of North America threw all the Geysers of Iceland, and the hot water and mud springs of New Zealand, into comparative insignificance. So great were the wonders of this extraordinary region, and so vast was the scale on which they occurred, that the United States Government had wisely reserved it for all future time as a public park and a play-ground for the American Nation.