160 



'water coveritii^ the lilack bog mud, perhaps fi-oin two to three 

 'inches, T made the find. In turning the stones (tiat pieces such 

 'as frost will split from rocks — not boulders) I found no difficulty 

 ' in picking the animals off, the most of them keeping quiet. They 

 ' were pretty numerous under the stones, when at all, and looked 

 ' exceedingly like the surrounding eartli. Through tliis and their 

 ' quiet habit I did not notice at first that they were so numerous, 

 ' but seeing that they were interesting things (T had not seen any 

 ' thing like it before) T took pi'etty well all I could lay hands on ; 

 ' and this is the only time and place I have collected them although 

 ' 1 have many a time turned stones in the neighbourhood and in 

 ' similar Iocaliti(;s.' 



In speaking further of the locality he explains that it is nearly 

 at the top of a branch of the leading plateau that extends, with 

 various interruptions, towards the Ram's Head, Mount Townsend 

 and Mount Kosciusko, the highest points of the range, and that 

 it is only about one-half or three-quarters of a mile from the rise 

 which forms the watershed between the river basins on the north 

 and south. This rise is only about 30 or 40 feet higher than the 

 place at which the animals were found. Consequently the amount 

 of water in the creek can never be very great and, moreover, it is 

 specially to be noted that for about six months of the year the 

 place is covered with snow and the ground itself is probably frozen. 

 On March 13th at " Pretty Point," Mr. Helms found the remains 

 of his tea completely frozen in his " billy.'' 



The Isopod about to be described is quite diflerent from any of 

 the fresh-water and terrestrial Crustacea hitherto recorded from 

 Australia, its nearest allies being marine in their habitat, and its 

 occurrence on the top of a hill neaily 6,000 feet high is very 

 peculiar. In connection with this it will be interesting to mention 

 the following facts of a somewhat similar kind. 



Mr. Gr. M. Thomson has taken in New Zealand a species, /-"/(erwsa 

 Cfcr-ulea, 8tel)bing, at a height of about 3,000 feet. He gives the 

 following account of its habitat : — '■'■Hab. Several specimens of this 

 species were taken in a runnel of water on the Obelisk (or Old- 

 Man) range, in the interior of Otago, at a height of about 3,000 

 feet. The stream was a little thing that one could have damned 

 with tiie hand, and running at such a slope that I can hardly 

 imagine how the Crustacea are not washed away by every shower 

 of rain. The Old-Man range is al)Out 80 miles from the sea. The 

 only other fresh-water Amphipod found in New Zealand (exclud- 

 ing the subterranean forms found by Chilton) isCcdliopejiuviaiilis, 

 mihi, which is very common.'"* 



Here we have a species lielonging to a genus chiefly marine in 

 its habitat, f >und in a small stream on the top of a hill — a place 

 which must frequently be covered with snow during the winter. 



* See Transactions Zoological Society, London, Vol. XII., part vi., 

 (1887) p. 208. 



