THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA. 



" Hamlet " minus the Prince of Denmark. In short, the mightier the perfume the 



more potent the supposed fertilising properties. 



At the instance of Mr. Thomas Broadhurst, the present representative of the 



firm, who takes a warm interest in all matters connected with the actual or potential 

 commercial capabilities of these islands, the author was deputed by the Western 

 Australian Government, in his capacity of Commissioner of Fisheries, to examine and 

 report upon their eligibility for the establishment thereon of oyster, mother-of-pearl shell, 

 and other profitable fisheries. The investigations made with this special object led to 

 the discovery of a very unexpected constitution of the marine fauna of these islands, 

 and at the same time permitted the writer to make a favourable report to the 

 Government in directions which had not been anticipated. The ordinary Australian 

 Rock Oyster, Ostrcea glomerata, occurs in such abundance and under such conditions 

 on several of the islands, that it could no doubt be made a subject of remune- 

 rative cultivation. The smaller West Australian variety of mother-of-pearl shell, 

 identical with the Meleagrina imbricata of Reeve, was found growing very sparingly 

 among the reefs, and although it could no doubt be abundantly propagated there by 

 recourse to scientific methods, it did not seem worthy of attention in comparison 

 with the unexpectedly favourable conditions which the author found to obtain at 

 the Abrolhos for the introduction and acclimatisation of the larger and far more 

 valuable tropical species, Meleagrina margaritifera. 



A separate Chapter being devoted later on to fuller details concerning the 

 various species of Australian mother-of-pearl shell, it will suffice here to remark 

 that the large commercial species, M. margaritifera,, is an essentially tropical type, 

 not found growing indigenously below the parallel of 23 \ S. The smaller shell, 

 M. imbricata, while a native of the tropics, attains to its most prolific and vigorous 

 growth several degrees south of the Tropic of Capricorn, being most abundant in 

 Shark's Bay, on the Western Australian coast, and in Wide Bay and Moreton Bay, 

 on the Eastern or Queensland sea-board. By direct experiment the writer had 

 proved, a short while previously, that the larger tropical species might be artificially 

 transported to, and would thrive and propagate in, the extra-tropical waters of 

 Shark's Bay ; and his investigations of the Abrolhos reefs led him to anticipate that 

 in their vicinity this valuable tropical species would meet with even more favour- 

 able growth conditions. The specially propitious conditions noted were intimately 

 associated with the correlated marine fauna and environments of the respective 

 districts. In Shark's Bay, about 25 55" S., where the shell was experimentally 



