ZOOLOGY. 793 



opinion of Professor Ramsey that the fish could not get forward in a 

 straight line unless swimming very fast or very slowly at the time, 

 and when it does this it does not use the tail at all, but depends upon 

 the pectorals. The Neoceratodus has been said to frequently leave the 

 water and go upon land, and the possession of fully developed lungs 

 seems to warrant such a belief, but Professor Ramsey doubts whether 

 it ever goes quite out of the water, as has been reported, for the simple 

 reason that the fish is too bulky to i^rogress by the tins, and not long 

 enough in the body to go eel-fashion; at any rate, individuals in con- 

 finement decidedly objected to being kept any length of time out of 

 water; they put up with it a few minutes and then began to plunge 

 about so that he was always glad to get them back again in the water, 

 fearing that they would injure themselves. As the cold weather ap- 

 proaches the Burramuudi becomes inactive, and even too lazy to get out 

 of the way when about to be handled. 



The ovaries and testes are nearly developed, and in April, or the 

 early antipodal fall, in the Burnett River, but not before the beginning 

 of (September, or at the commencement of spring in the southern hemi- 

 sphere, have the eggs been found laid in the water. They are deposited 

 among the weeds and are placed each one by itself, "resembling those . 

 of the common newt" or salamander. They are fertilized in the water 

 like those of some species of the newt kind. They are very difficult to 

 be obtained. Mr. Caldwell spent many weeks hunting and, with the 

 assistance of the blacks, turned up many hundred water-holes before 

 he found any eggs. These were " covered with an enormous quantity 

 of gelatinous matter which required some special means to remove," 

 and it was "eight days before he got a single egg out whole. When he 

 succeeded in getting at the early stages, it remained to rear them until 

 they were practically identical with the adult fish. This was a very 

 difficult task, as the enemies of the Ceratodus were very numerous. 

 There were two kinds of fungi which attacked the eggs. He put in 

 Crustacea to devour the fungus, but these in turn attacked the young 

 fish when it emerged from the egg. He was three months, till near the 

 end of November (or the end of the Australian si)ring), developing the 

 eggs." It is also noteworthy that not until nearly six weeks after hatch- 

 ing were the hind limbs developed in the young. The egg of the Cera- 

 todus undergoes "a complete segmentation similar to that of the kan- 

 garoo." (Caldwell in Journ. Royal Soc. N. 8. Wales^ v. 18, pp. 119, 120.) 



The extent of Salmon Xeap«.— ;-Observations have been made by Prof. 

 A. Landmark, the chief director of the Norwegian fisheries, on the ex- 

 tent of the leaps which salmon are ca])able of. He thinks that " the jump 

 depends as much on the height of the fall as on the currents below it. 

 If there be a deep pool right under the fall, where the water is compar- 

 atively quiet, a salmon may jump 16 feet perx)endicularly ; but such 

 jumi)s are rare, and he can only state that it has taken place at the Hel- 



