Oct.,"] 

 '9>5 J 



Skarlh and Shephard, Visit to Lakes. 89 



the locomotive power for itself and guests. Probably the only 

 detriment suffered by the Daphnia was some retardation of its 

 movements due to the scores of rotifers which, in many 

 instances, adhered to a single host, but placed on the carapace 

 nut of reach of movable appendages. Treatment with nar- 

 cotizing agents caused the rotifers to leave their host. This 

 rotifer was a species of the variable genus Brachionus, and may 

 prove new. Caution is requisite in identifying species of this 

 genus, in view of a recent worker on Rotifera having claimed 

 forty-six descriptions as synonymous. 



Next morning was cold and wet, but, as our programme for 

 the day was to visit Lakes Gnotuk and Bullen-Merri, near 

 Camperdown, twenty miles distant, we were not deterred by 

 the weather. The road from Colac to Camperdown passes 

 through a very interesting piece of country — the Stony Rises. 

 For some miles the road takes a sinuous track, with numerous 

 short ascents and descents, over and around numberless mounds 

 of loosely-packed blocks of basalt. Possibly an observer 

 familiar with the features of active vulcanicity may read the 

 story with certainty : but without that advantage it is difficult 

 to receive the explanation that the surface features are due 

 to the irregularities of the forward edge of a high basalt flow. 

 The numerous separate depressions appear to be left un- 

 explained. A pleasant description of this part of the road will 

 be found in an interesting paper, " In the Western Lake 

 District." by Mr. F. G. A. Barnard, in the Naturalist for 

 December, 1911 (vol. xxviii., p. 158). 



As we approached Camperdown the weather improved, the 

 rain stopping on reaching the lakes. The road we took leads 

 somewhat to the south-west of the town and on to the tongue 

 of land between the two lakes, it being possible to drive to the 

 edge of Bullen-Merri. On the hill overlooking the lakes is a 

 nicely-kept public park, provided with well-equipped rest- 

 houses. These are extremely creditable to the providers, and 

 a good example to other public bodies. 



No boat being available, we had devised a method of using 

 the tow-net. This was to draw it across bays, controlling it 

 by lines from either side. This scheme proved a failure. The 

 water had receded through evaporation, and on the south- 

 eastern bank, where we commenced operations, there was from 

 fifteen to twenty feel <>t beach, covered with small shell-., 

 ( 0i iella striatula, under which the ground was so soft that it 

 was impossible to walk on it. Further, stumps of trees which 

 had evidently grown when the lake was permanently at a lower 

 level and then been killed by the water rising, now again high 

 and dry, encumbered the ground. These trees, it may be 

 remarked, were hoary with a thick limy covering, deposited by 

 the highly mineralized water of the lake. 



