460 NATURAL SCIENCE. JUNE, 1893. 
deserves its evil reputation in this matter, but until its innocence be 
established he recommends its wholesale destruction. 
The common sting-ray, Tvygon pastinaca, is most destructive, and 
Cestracion philippi, the Port Jackson shark, makes use of its crushing 
teeth to very evil effect among the oysters. Boring sponges, birds, and 
various other forms of life prey on the oyster, but the most de- 
structive pest is the small worm, Leucodore ciliata, whose ravages were 
first described by Mr. Whitelegge. 
In a special chapter, entitled ‘‘ Food and Fancy Fishes,” the 
author deals with some of the goo recorded species of Queensland 
fish. Among food-fishes, those of the Northern district belong to 
the Indo-pacific or Oriental region. The trumpeters and barracutas, 
which are so important in the fish-markets of New Zealand, are 
practically unrepresented in Queensland. The best known forms are 
Lates calcavifer (the ‘* Cockup” of the Calcutta market), and the smaller 
Lates colonorum. Mullets, gurnards, sea-pikes, flat-fish, and many 
well-known forms abound. Eight species of herring (Clupea) 
have been recorded, but, as yet, have not been utilised for com- 
mercial purposes. Altogether, the ‘‘ unvintageable sea” seems to be 
remarkably prolific, and Mr. Saville Kent makes out a good case for 
regarding the Barrier Reef as one of the most remarkable com- 
mercial advantages of Queensland. In a concluding chapter entitled 
‘“‘ Potentialities,’ he points out how, under proper scientific advice, 
this commercial advantage admits of almost indefinite extension. 
As the population of Australia increases, the value of so large an 
area of prolific sea-life will become almost inestimable, and, quite 
apart from the scientific value of Mr. Saville Kent’s beautiful volume, 
Queensland is to be congratulated on taking so efficient means as the 
assistance of this work to develop its resources. On the side of 
practical utility it were hard to see how Mr. Saville Kent could have 
done better work. He has surveyed the actual resources of the reef 
and has shown the small use that is at present made of them, 
pringing to the task not only a trained scientific mind, but a large 
special experience. 
To those who spend their days in laboratories and museums, and 
who will eagerly turn to the separate scientific accounts that have 
been, and will be, published on Mr. Saville Kent’s collections, this 
work is equally invaluable ; for here are the animals, not as speci- 
mens with names new or old, hinging on some obscure point in 
anatomy or doubtful question of priority, but the animals alive, in 
their actual places in the world, in their crowded environment of 
friend and foe, of sunlight and waters. In this short sketch of 
the book very little has been said of its most valuable scientific 
feature—the faithful and minute account it gives of the actual 
appearances presented by a living coral reef; but as the value of 
this account is inseparably associated with the beautiful photographic 
plates, those interested must be referred to the book itself. 
