ROYAL INSTITUTION OF CORNWALL. The annual meeting of this institution was held at Truro on Friday last, when there was a larger attendance than usual, and the chair was taken by the President, Sir Charles Lemon, Bart., M.P., F.R.S., &c. On the table were arranged a number of specimens, many of them rare and curious, in Natural History, Geology, Mineralogy, &c. . The president opened the proceedings by requesting Mr. Tweedy, one of the secretaries, to read the report. Mr. Tweedy then read the following REPORT OF THE COUNCIL.. Your council believe they may congratulate you on the past year having been one of decided progress. Periodical meetings of the members for reading and discussing communications, and for the examination of such presents as may from time to time be made to the society have been held. The additions to the museum have been very considerable, and the number of visitors has been large. The support which the Town council of Truro have liberally afforded to the institution, has enabled the members to continue to offer to the public the opportunity of visiting and inspecting the museum, on the afternoons of three days in the week gratuitously, and during the past year upwards of 4,000 persons have availed themselves of this privilege. Your council, in consequence of Saturday being a day on which a considerable number of excursion trains come to Truro during the summer months, have opened the museum on that day, instead of on a Friday, and they have also extended the hours during which the museum is open in the winter months. The council have also reduced the fee for admission at those times, when the museum is not open gratuitously, to sixpence. The orderly conduct, and the intelligent appreciation of the various objects of interest by a large class of visitors, from whom no pecuniary support can be expected, is a source of much gratification to your council, as they feel assured it will be to all who desire the intellectual progress of the many. . Among the subjects brought under discussion at the evening meetings of the society, your council may mention the communication by Mr. Charles Fox, of a photographic copy of an inscription on the sarcophagus of a Sidonian King, which was discovered at Sidon in the spring of last year. It is the only [country] and it is supposed to be of about the fifth century B.C. Mr. Fox has also furnished the society with a translation of the inscription, and with a copy of the head placed at the top of the sarcophagus. . Mr. Whitley's brief notice at our last annual meeting of the [but ]circles on Carnbrea and on Dartmoor, has elicited several communications respecting similar discoveries in other parts of the kingdom, and in Scotland, especially one from Mr. Maclauchlan, to whom we are indebted for so much valuable information respecting the antiquities of the county. This subject is not exhausted, and it will afford your council much pleasure to see it further investigated, and to be enabled to lay before you the result of such investigations. To the younger members of the society a search for such objects would surely add to the interest of their rambles on our moors. . Mr. Couch of Polperro, favoured the society with a paper on the old bridge at Looe. The record of a structure dating form the early part of the fifteenth century, and which has now been destroyed to make way for building better adapted to the requirements of modern times, and of the ancient towns between which it was the connection, will possess an interest for the antiquary which renders it desirable that it should be preserved. . Mr. Osler, at the request of the members present, favoured the meeting with some very interesting observations of the structure and habits of the Teredo navalis and of the means by which this destructive mollusk is enabled to commit its ravages, of which several specimens were on the table. . A description of the fungus of the genus Geaster or earth star, was communicated by Mr. W. Tweedy, jun. to accompany some specimens which were exhibited, and which had been found in a hollow in an elm tree at Truto Vean. . Mr. Whitley drew attention to an inscribed stone of a very early date of which a sketch furnished by Mr. Kent, of Padstow, had been published in the journal of the Archaeological Society for 1845, but which appears to have escaped the notice of our local archaeologists; a proof of the importance of local societies to which such communications may be made, and by whom a record of them may be preserved. . Mr. Brown exhibited imprints of the date of 1645 of official reports made to the Speaker of the House of Commons relative to that time. It is intended during the ensuing winter to resume these meetings, which are calculated to keep alive an interest in the objects of our institution. . Among the presents during the last year, your council, while acknowledging the kindness of those donors who have presented to the institution relics of the war in the Crimea, are particularly indebted to Colonel Aylmer, R.A., for the many interesting specimens illustrative of the ancient remains of the Chersonesus. Mr. H. H. Vivian has presented to the society a valuable series of specimens illustrative of the coal formations of Swansea and its neighborhood. Mr. Whitley has given a considerable number of fossils from North [??] . LIST OF PRESENTS. –-MR. TWEEDY also read the following list of presents to the society during the past year: - 351 specimens selected from the Trade Collection of the Great Exhibition; by Her Majesty's Commissioners for 1851.. A large collection of Natural History, consisting of upwards of 300 specimens; bequeathed by the late Mr. Clement Jackson, of East Looe.. A variety of interesting specimens of Natural History, &c., &c., presented by W.P. Cocks, Esq.. Blackbird of a grey colour; by Thomas Opie.. Two specimens of copper from North Basset; by Mr. Wm. Michell.. Greenough's Geological Map of India, by Dr. Carlyon.. Synopsis of the Classification of the British Paleozoic Rocks, part 3rd; by Professor Sedgwick.. Specimens of phosphate of iron, native copper, potatoe stone, crystals in granite, pearl spar, spathose iron, goethite, quartz coated with chalcedony, and oxide of zinc; by Mr. Tweedy.. A series of specimens of coals used by Mr. Hussey Vivian, M.P., to illustrate his lecture at the Truro Institution; by H.H. Vivian, Esq. M.P. . Stone Cannon Shot, &c. ; ancient figure from St. Mawes; a piece of marble from Sebastapol, by Dr. Bullmore. Crocodile from Banks of Ganges, by Mr. Edward Wilson. Five Russian shot and one shell from Sebastapol, by H. S. Stokes, Esq.. Bittern, by Mr. W. Newcombe.. Coal Mine Reports, by Joseph Dickinson, Esq.. Specimen of Coral, by Augustus Smith, Esq.. Specimens of Slate from Braunton, with fossils from Braunton and Swindon, Isle of Wight and the Railway Cutting Treviddo; by Mr. Whitley.. Specimens of Fossils from the inferior Oolite, by Mr. John Jones, (Gloucester).. Two Snakes from Montreal, by Mr. Robert Spry Reed.. Specimens of the woods growing in Canada West, by Mr. S. H. Budd.. Two Norwegian coins, by Mr. Carlson.. Quarter Spanish dollar, by Mr. Francis.. Specimen of native Bismuth, specimen of black Jasper; Granite with spots of suphuret of iron and copper; and brown and red hematite in quartz, by Mr. Richard Pearce.. Two black head Gulls, by Mr. Crossman.. Shot found in the Camp-field, Truro, supposed to be one used by Cromwell's army; by Mr. John Pascoe.. Specimen of Green Carbonate of Copper, Fibrous Malachite from North Basset, and specimen of Contorted Micaceous Schist, from Ben Lomond, near Inversnarld; by Mr. E.J. Spry.. A variety of interesting specimens from the Crimea, by Colonel Aylmer.. Cotton Worm from Georgia, by Mr. W.R. Rouse.. Fossil Stem of Palm from Sutherland, by Mr. D. Gunn. Sea Slug, by Mr. John James. Idol from Easter Island, native Cloth from Tahiti, by Lieut. Parkyn, R.N.. Impression of the Seal of the Borough of St. Ives, by John Hayward, Esq.. Specimen of Quartz from East Wheal Unity, Lithomarge from Wheal Jane, Iridescent Pyrites from Wheal Jane, Asphaltam or Mineral Pitch from Poldice, Chlorite deposited on Quartz Crystals, and Tungstate of Iron or Wolfram in acicular crystals, from Poldice, Fluor Spar with crystals of sulphate of lime from Poldice, and Botryoidal Copper from Clyjah and Wentworth, by Mr. W. Rickard. .Specimen of Lievrite from near St. Austell; by Mr. H. C. Hodge. .The Physical Geography of the South Western Counties of England, by Mr. Whitley. .Presents from the several societies of their reports as follows: - Proceeding of the Zoological Society of London; Leeds Philosophical and Literary Institution; Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society; Geological and Polytechnic Society. West Riding Yorkshire; and Scarborough Philosophical Society. Mr. ENTS rose to propose that the report be received, adopted, and printed. He did so with a great deal of pleasure because he was convinced that a great amount of work had been done during the last year. He believed that exactly in proportion to the work done was the modesty of the report which had been drawn up. Rev. T. PHILLPOTTS seconded the motion, and it was carried unanimously. .The following papers were then read: . - ORNITHOLOGY - A paper, entitled "Notes on the Ornithological occurrences in Cornwall for the year 1856", by Mr. E.H. Rodd, of Penzance, was read by Dr. BARHAM. - I am not aware that the past year has afforded any additions to the Ornithological Fauna of Cornwall, but some birds of rare occurrence and interest have been noticed, which indeed may generally be expected in a county like ours, presenting as it does, so many features favourable to the habitat of land and water birds. I was fortunate enough a few days [copy non-existant….] Land and England. .Dr. Vigurs dredged it up alive a few miles from Falmouth harbour in 1851; and he informed Mr. Lovell Squire about a week ago, that he had frequently procured them both from the harbour and bay. Mr. Cocks considered the fish scarce in our neighbourhood, not a rare one. Its rarity arises from the naturalist being ignorant of its habitats, and selecting ground for his dredging operations incompatible with the movements of the fish. .Mr. Cox added a list of specimens taken in 1855 and also this year; amongst the latter were Labrus variegates, by Mr. H. O. Bullmore; Lernea branchiales, by Miss Vigurs; Teredo palmulata, specimens from Mr. H. Fox, Miss Vigurs, and Mr. N. Tredidder; wood from the keel of a Dutch barque in Mr. Trethowan's yard, Little Falmouth; Cynthia morus, Forbes, from dredger's refuse, Falmouth bay, by Mr. H. Bastian; Actinea plumose, from Mill-pond bar, by Mr. W.K. Bullmore. Several specimens in ornithology were also mentioned by Mr. Cocks. The Green Shark, Totanus glottis, shot near the reservoir of the Falmouth waterworks. Pigmy Curlew, shot at Swanpool, in the possession of Mr. Howard Fox; and the Arctic Tern, shot in the harbour by Mr. Cox; rather plentiful this autumn. ANCIENT ENCAMPMENT. - Dr. BARRAM [Barham??] said he would read a few lines from one who he hoped would by-and-bye become a very valuable fellow--abourer. It was an account of an encampment in the parish of Cubert, by Mr. W.E. Michell, and was as follows: - The parish road from Newlyn to Cubert, about half a mile from the latter place, bisects an encampment which I have not seen noticed in any of your reports. It consists of a single circular rampart, about ten feet high on the outside, and a ditch. It stands on high ground, and is about 100 feet in diameter. The interior, on both sides of the road, is now used as a garden.. NOTICE OF THE COPPER-TURF OF MERIONETH. - By William Jory Henwood, F.R.S., F.G. S.; read by Dr. BARHAM. The copper ores which have been found in some abundance amongst the mountains of Merionethshire have not occurred in such long and regular lodes as characterize many other metalliferous deposits; but were, for the most part, obtained from the net work of irregular strings, which, chiefly composed of quartz and carbonate of lime in ever varying proportions, and frequently mixed with epidote and other minerals, conform more or less to the natural joints of the hornblende slate or greenstone. The district to which my labours were directed, a few years ago, is a wild and romantic one, well known to tourists, about three or four miles north west of Dolgelley, on the way to Trawsfynnydd, and occupies the irregular triangle included between the rivers Mawddweh and Babi. Although the surface is generally steep and rough, there are some gently declivities, and small vales so slightly inclined as to have permitted the formation of peat; and it is in these that the copper-turf has been wrought. At Bryn Coch, numerous short, thin veins and isolated spots of copper pyrites occur in a small rock eminence, and the water oozing and trickling from it enters a field long cultivated, but from its infertility called Cae Drwg "the bad field." The soil was examined in my presence, and gave traces of copper. At Bearhos there are small quantities of antimonial grey copper ore, of copper pyrites, and of the blue and green carbonates of .....[incomplete] . CRIMEAN ANTIQUITIES [missing text] . County Corn Markets -skipped. Fairs for November -skipped