and PalcBontology of Victoria. 183 



Acclimatization Society of Victoria to introduce the salmon and 

 other good British fish into the waters of the colony, indepen- 

 dently of the scientific interest of the experiment. Large English 

 trout are now in considerable numbers, from ova imported, 

 packed in ice, by our Victorian Acclimatization Society, acting 

 in conjunction with the Tasmanian government. Not only were 

 numbers of parr hatched in the Victorian and Tasmanian rivers 

 from the salmon-ova imported in this way, but there is now in 

 the Exhibition one caught a few weeks ago in the Tamar River, 

 about ten inches in length, which has lost the marks of the 

 parr, and assumed the bright silvery aspect of the migratory 

 stage of development, or "grilse." This is a gi'eat success for 

 acclimatization and pisciculture, and shows that none of the 

 insuperable difficulties which were supposed in England to bar 

 our success with the Salmonidse really exist, but that food and 

 climate, and quality of water of such of our rivers as flow all 

 the year, are sufficiently suitable to permit of success. 



The cartilaginous fishes are supposed to be so abundant here 

 as greatly to diminish the chance of the acclimatized salmon 

 returning in safety from the sea; but I do not think they are 

 as numerous as in Britain. 



The Callorhynchus antarctica, or Southern Chimera, is com- 

 mon near Portland, at short distances from the shore; and all 

 round our coast the Port-Jackson shark, or " bulldog shark/' 

 as it is called by the colonists {Cestracion [Heterodontus) Philippi), 

 is not uncommon. The most beaiitiful and curious of our sharks 

 is that called " carpet shark " by the colonists — the Crossorhinus 

 barbatus. The largest of our sharks, the " black-finned shark " 

 [Carcharias melanopterus), is so rare that I have seen only one 

 specimen (fifteen feet long), from Hobson's Bay. The European 

 " hammer-headed shark" {Sphyrriias zygcena) is not very uncom- 

 mon. But, what is very curious, we find the common English 

 "tope" {Galeus canus) common in the bay; and, more extra- 

 ordinary still, the common English " smooth- hound" {Musfelus 

 vulgaris) is the commonest dogfish or small shark of our coast, 

 occurring in great numbers in Hobson's Bay, undistinguishable 

 from Cornish specimens. The large Odontaspis taurus is, per- 

 haps our commonest large and very destructive species, al- 

 though the Indian Heptranchus indicus is not uncommon also. 

 Another large shai*k, perfectly identical with the English species, 

 is the "angelfish" [Sqiiafina vulgaris), not very uncommon. 

 Intermediate between the sharks and rays we have the tentacu- 

 lated " sawfish " [Pristiophorus cirratus) in abundance, and the 

 rare Trigonorhina fasciata. These, with one or two rays {Roja 

 Lemprieri 8cc.), two large " sting rays" [Trygon), and a rare 

 Cephaloptera, are the chief predaceous Chondropterygii. One 



