20 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



Gayndah, a long, straggling township on the river banks, and 

 here I took up my quarters in the comfortable Club Hotel. At 

 one time Gayndah was the centre of a wool-producing district 

 and bears evident signs of having seen a better day. 



Intent on meeting with Ceratodus, I made my way to Mr. 

 Thomas Illidge, the postmaster of Gayndah, to whom I had been 

 recommended, and 1 gladly take this opportunity of expressing 

 my thanks to him, not only for the valuable help and information 

 which he gave me, but for many acts of kindness which added 

 greatly to the pleasure of my stay in Gayndah. I may here also 

 express my thanks to my friends, Dr. Cole and Messrs. Frank 

 and Virgil Connelly, from whom — though a complete stranger — 

 I received most valuable help. If a naturalist wishes to meet 

 with genuine kindness and every possible assistance, I can warmly 

 recommend Gayndah to him. 



One of the first things I learnt was that Dr. Siemen, of the 

 University of Jena, had recently come to the Burnett district for 

 the purpose of securing the eggs of Ceratodus, and the various 

 development stages of Platypus and Echidna ; and not only this, 

 but that he had secured the services of the available blacks. I 

 must confess to a feeling of something like chagrin at having come 

 so far to meet with, apparently, no chance of success in what was 

 my main object. 



After sleeping over my preliminary disappointment, I determined 

 on carrying out the only plan possible, which was to obtain one 

 or two boys accustomed to the river and, with their help, to at 

 any rate get Ceratodus and, if possible, the eggs. It was now 

 well on in September — the time at which Mr. Caldwell had found 

 that the animal had laid eggs — so there was still hope that I might 

 secure them. Perhaps it may be well here to state briefly the 

 special interest which attaches to this particular form Ceratodus. 

 As you all know, there are two groups of animals — the fishes and 

 the amphibia — of which the first live in water, and breathe by 

 means of gills, whilst the second either spend, as the newts do, 

 their whole life in water, breathing by means of gills, or else, like 

 the frogs, spend the early part of their life in water, breathing by 

 gills and then come out of the water and breath by lungs just as 

 reptiles and mammals do. 



Now there is a very small group of animals known as the 

 Dipnoi, which are, we may say, intermediate between the fishes 

 and the amphibia. They are neither so lowly developed as the 

 fishes, nor so highly developed as the amphibia — in fact, they 

 may almost be described as "missing links" which still exist, 

 and show us the way in which air-breathing were evolved from 

 water-breathing animals. If we simply went by their external 

 appearance we should class them amongst fishes, which they 

 closely resemble in many respects. Now, fishes have what is 



