THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 17 



and threes. Had it been a week day some skins, scalps, and tails 

 would possibly have parted from the remainder of the animals. 



" All my attempts to capture a huge lizard who has his home 

 amongst the roots of the fig tree have proved abortive, and I 

 shall have to try what a cunningly-devised snare will do. 



" Occasionally a Cormorant, Graculus melanoleucus, makes 

 his way into tliis sequestered corner, and finds good living too, 

 for the pond is full of fish. He sits upright on a stranded log 

 until a fish is seen. Then — a splash, a gleam of silver, and he 

 is back on his perch, spreading his wings and pluming himself in 

 the sun. But if the gardener sees him the gun comes out, and 

 the Cormorant dies." 



Birds are not the only anglers in this pool. Our friend casts 

 his own line therein at times, and has drawn from this and other 

 waters a problem which often confronts naturalists, accounts of 

 which are often received doubtingly, and concerning which some 

 of the explanations given do not always meet the case. Mr. C. 

 says : — " The variety and number of the fish are amazing. 

 Before the rainy season there was only the one permanent water- 

 hole in the creek near me, and at that time there did not seem 

 to be many fish in it. But within a fortnight from the time the 

 creek started to run, in every hole for miles up (where they could 

 not apparently have travelled because of obstacles in the shape 

 of rapids and falls) there were multitudes of tiny fish. How they 

 come is somewhat of a mystery. Is it possible that before the 

 water dried up the ova were deposited, and that they remain in 

 the dry bed of the creek until the fresh flow of water causes them 

 to hatch ? This hardly seems possible, since, if such be the case, 

 the eggs must sometimes remain unhatched for years. Very long 

 intervals — several yeais sometimes — elapse without the creeks 

 running." In another letter he says : — "Here is another puzzle : 

 Castle Hill is the eminence overlooking Townsville — a mountain, 

 we call it. During the wet season many little streams run down 

 its sides, forming here and there small pools, which, however, are 

 dry for nine or ten months of the year — sometimes for several years 

 together. But when these pools have only been filled a few days 

 small fish appear, which grow rapidly for the few weeks the water 

 remains. Some years ago a man took up land over the range, 

 but there was no water on it, nor any creek or river within miles. 

 A dam was made, but as no rain fell for more than two years, 

 this remained dry. One night a thunderstorm — a very local one 

 — broke over the place and filled the dam. In a few days many 

 fish were noticed in the bywash of the dam. This is vouched for 

 by a most observant naturalist friend — a member of the literary 

 staff of the local Bulletin. 



"In the waterlily pool I caught, the other day, eight distinct 

 varieties of fish, and noticed three, if not four sorts which 



