304 THE GREAT BARRIER REEF. 



South Sea Islands, by a Barrier fisherman formerly engaged in the South Sea trade. Also, 

 from the same locality, a small eel having very pronounced electrical properties. Neither of 

 these species appear to be known to science, nor, indeed, does any marine species of Electric 

 Eel ; the only familiar type being the Gymnotus, that inhabits the fresh waters of South 

 America. Rumours of a Barrier Reef electric species have likewise reached the author, but 

 further evidence is desired for an authentic establishment of its existence. 



Muraenesox, including M. cincreus, Bl., the pike-eel, Ophichthys, and Gymnomuraena are 

 additional representative genera of the eel family, occurring in the Queenland seas, whose 

 members may be associated with those fitted to yield a valuable and nutritious food supply. 

 The first-named species, Miircenesox cinercus, is photographically illustrated in Plate XLVII., 

 Fig. 5. The abnormally "open" countenance of the fish is characteristically delineated 

 in this portrait. The eye, as may be observed, is situated close to the end of the 

 snout, while the mouth cleft is continued backwards through almost the entire length of the 

 head. 



The family of the Sirenidas includes but a single known Australian species, the celebrated 

 Ceratodiis Forsteri Krefft., which is restricted in its distribution to the Burnett, Dawson, and 

 Mary Rivers in Queensland. In association with two other types, Lepidosiren paradoxus, Fitz., 

 of South America, and the African mud-fish, Protopterus annedcns, Owen, it has been placed 

 by biologists in a distinct sub-order of the fish class known as the Dipnoi. This group is 

 specially remarkable for the fact that its members possess well-developed respiratory lungs 

 in addition to ordinary gills, for which reason they may be appropriately named " lung-fishes." 

 This and other important structural details have necessitated their relegation to a position at 

 least physiologically midway between the class of ordinary fishes, and that of the amphibia, 

 which includes the frogs and newts. The possession of supplementary lungs in this group, is 

 no doubt a provision to enable the fish to live independently of the precarious or vitiated 

 water supply of the districts they inhabit. In the case of the African species, the fish, on 

 the approach of the dry season, construct for themselves shells, or cocoons, of mud, in which 

 they hibernate or estivate until the return of the rains. In this condition they are dug up 

 for food, after the manner of potatoes or yams. The Ceratodus, locally known to the settlers 

 as the Burnett-Mary River salmon, and to the aborigines as a form of barramunda — which 

 name should be restricted to Osteoglossum — attains to a length of six feet with a weight of 

 from 20 to 30 or more lb. Its flesh, fortunately for the prospects of the conservation of the 

 species, is not generally esteemed for food, being of a dark red hue, and somewhat coarse and 

 oily. Individual opinions as to its merits on this point are, however, much divided. Although 

 previously known to, and utilised for food by, the settlers and aborigines, the discovery of this 

 remarkable fish to science dates no farther back than the year 1870. The interest attached 

 to this genus, from a scientific standpoint, is heightened by the fact that fossil teeth belonging 



