214 RECORDS OF THE ADSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



official position enabled liiin to n^ather together a valuable 

 Icbtliyological library, thus enabling these authoi'S to consult 

 works otherwise unavailable to them. 



Visiting England in 1883 as Secretary in Charge of Exhibits 

 to the Great International Fi,sheries Exhibition, Dr. Ramsay 

 met Dr. Francis Day, author of the " Fishes of India," 

 and was able to purchase from him the greater part of the 

 fine collection of Indian fishes upon which this work was based. 

 It iticluded a laige number of types and co-types of Day's own 

 species, together with a considerable number of specimens 

 identified by the celebrated Dutch Ichthyologist, Dr. Pieter 

 Bleeker. This invaluable collection was brought safely to 

 Australia and formed the basis of the large Ichthyological 

 Collection since formed in the Australian Museum. 



Dr. Ramsay encouraged numerous collectors, both amateur 

 and professional, and the earlier Museum Registers include 

 many entries of zoological collections from all parts of Aus- 

 tralasia, gathered together for him by local Missionaries and 

 the officers of vessels trading in the South Seas. In 1882 he 

 organised an expedition to the Burdekin and Mary Rivers, 

 Queensland, with a view to investigating the fishes of that 

 region. This was the outcome of a suggestion of Sir Richard 

 Owen, who thought a search of some of the inter-tropical 

 rivers of Australia might lead to the discovery of living species 

 of archaic types of fishes, similar to Neoceratodns. The expe- 

 dition-* under Mr. Alexander Morton, failed to discover any such 

 types, but a fine collection of the local fauna was obtained, and 

 many species were described as new. 



Among the more interesting fishes described as new by Dr. 

 Ramsay, may be mentioned a Ribbon-fish, Trachyptenis jctck- 

 smiensls^^ and a large Sea Perch, Luticuius viadeayaiia.-^ He 

 also described and figured a large Sword-fish, Tetraptnrus 

 indicus^"^ and some of our larger sharks, which were almost 



'-•' Exploration of the Caves and Elvers of N.S. Wales — Votes and 

 Proceedings, etc., 1882, p. 551. 



-5 Eamsay — Proc. Linn. Soc. New South Wales, v., 1881, p. 631, pi. xx. 



26 Kamsay— I6id., viii., 1883, p. 178. 



-" Kamsay — Ibid., v., 1881, p. 295, pi. viii. 



