The Scyphophori, Haplomi, and Xenomi 205 



of the Antarctic continent. Dr. Boulenger * has recently 

 shown that Galaxias lives freely in salt water, a fact sufficient 



* Dr. Boulenger (Nature, Nov. 27, 1902) has the following note on Galaxias: 

 " Most text-books and papers discussing geographical distribution have made 

 much of the range of a genus of small fishes, somewhat resembling trout, the 

 Galaxias, commonly described as true fresh- water forms, which have long been 

 known from the extreme south of South America, New Zealand, Tasmania, 

 and southern Australia. The discovery, within the last few years, of a species 

 of the same genus in fresh water near Cape Town, whence it had previously 

 been described as a loach by F. de Castelnau, has added to the interest, and 

 has been adduced as a further argument in support of the former existence 

 of an Antarctic continent. In alluding to this discovery when discussing the 

 distribution of African fresh-water fishes in the introduction to my work 

 'Les Poissons du Bassin du Congo,' in 1901, I observed that, contrary to the 

 prevailing notion, all species of Galaxias are not confined to fresh water, and 

 that the fact of some living both in the sea and in rivers suffices to explain 

 the curious distribution of the genus; pointing out that in all probability 

 these fishes were formerly more widely distributed in the seas south of the 

 tropic of Capricorn, and that certain species, adapting themselves entirely to 

 fresh-water life, have become localized at the distant points where they are 

 now known to exist. Although as recently as October last the distinguished 

 American ichthyologist D. S. Jordan wrote (Science, xiv, p. 20): 'We know 

 nothing of the power of Galaxias to survive submergence in salt water, if 

 carried in a marine current* ; it is an established fact, ascertained some years 

 ago by F. E. Clarke in New Zealand and by R. Vallentin in the Falkland Islands, 

 that Galaxias attenuatus lives also in the sea. In New Zealand it periodically 

 descends to the sea, where it spawns, from January to March, and returns 

 from March to May. In accordance with these marine habits, this species 

 has a much wider range than any of the others, being known from Chile, Pata- 

 gonia, Tierra del Fuego, the Falkland Islands, New Zealand, Tasmania, and 

 southern Australia. 



" I now wish to draw attention to a communication made by Captain F. W. 

 Hutton in the last number of the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute 

 (xxxiv, p. 198), 'On a Marine Galaxias from the Auckland Islands.' This 

 fish, named Galaxias bollansi, was taken out of the mouth of a specimen of 

 Merganser australis during the collection excursion to the southern islands 

 of New Zealand made in January, 1901, by His Excellency the Earl of Ran- 

 furly. 



"It is hoped that by giving greater publicity to these discoveries the family 

 GalaxiidcB will no longer be included among those strictly confined to fresh 

 waters, and that students of the geographical distribution of animals will 

 be furnished with a clue to a problem that has so often been discussed on 

 insufficient data. As observed by Jordan (/. c.), 'all anomalies in distribu- 

 tion cease to be such when the facts necessary to understand them are at 

 hand.' 



" Of the fresh-water species of Galaxias, eight are known from New Zealand 

 and the neighboring islands, seven from New South Wales, three or four from 

 south Australia, one from west Australia, two from Tasmania, seven from South 

 America, from Chile southwards, and one from the Cape of Good Hope." 



