THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 47 



beyond cavil, but the difificulty is that there seems to be a 

 steady supply of eels in inland places to which it is difficult to 

 imagine elvers or more fully grown eels are able to find their way. 

 Mr, Hopkins gives some instances which have come under his 

 own notice. Dr. Imhof {Nature, June, 1896, p. 134) gives a 

 more remarkable case. Eels were introduced into some Alpine 

 ponds over 3,000 feet above sea level, where none were known 

 previously. In some ponds all died, while in others they 

 flourished. The ponds are fed by springs, and have no apparent 

 outlet. The eels were put in in 1882 and again in 1887, so that 

 at the time of writing the youngest of the original eels must have 

 been 8 or 9 years old, and some of them are over 4 feet in length. 

 Yet in 1895 young eels were found in the lake. Evidently we 

 require further information on eel-breeding. Can anyone produce 

 a sexually mature eel from land-locked waters, and what is the 

 size of the smallest eel known from such a spot? I hope that the 

 remarks of Mr. Hopkins will lead to careful attention being paid 

 to the question, and that we may soon be in a position to speak 

 definitely on a point which should be capable of elucidation. 



Mr. F. Wisewould mentioned that on one occasion, when the 

 mouth of the Powlett River was blocked by a sandbank from 

 communication with the sea, the water at the mouth of the river 

 was alive with eels, evidently prevented from continuing their 

 journey to the open sea. He also mentioned the occurrence of 

 large numbers of young eels in the waterholes about 3 or 4 miles 

 from Cardinia Creek. These, he thought, came from the Koo- 

 wee-rup Swamp into the Cardinia Creek, and then followed up 

 the low-lying swampy country between the hills. He had never 

 found eels in the waterholes on the hills. 



Mr. J. Shephard stated that eels were very frequently taken 

 out of the water fittings of the Metropolitan Board of Works, 

 notwithstanding that strainers are placed at the commencement 

 of the reticulation pipes, showing that the eels must get into the 

 pipes when of very small dimensions. One specimen taken from 

 a pipe at Albert Park, he stated, was quite as large as a man's 

 forearm. 



The president, Mr. O. A. Sayce, and Mr. G. A. Keartland also 

 spoke on the subject. 



3. By Mr. G. Weindorfer, entitled " Some Comparison of the 

 Alpine Flora of Australia and Europe." 



The author pointed out the characteristics of an Alpine flora, 

 and stated that, though the European Alps are 10 degrees further 

 removed from the equator than the Australian Alps, the tree- 

 growth extends to much higher altitudes there than here, probably 

 due to the marked difference in the prevailing vegetation. The 

 European Alps are also much richer in the number of orders and 

 genera represented, and the flowers generally are of a more 

 brilliant character. 



