180 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA. 



America and Africa. One of these Arapaima gigas, of the rivers of Brazil, and the 

 Guayanas, attains to the phenomenal dimensions of fifteen feet in length, with a weight 

 of four hundred pounds, and is the largest living representative of the Teleostian 

 or bony-skeletoned fish, as distinguished from the Chondrostian or Cartilaginous- 

 skeletoned group, of which the Sharks and Sturgeons are familiar examples. The true 

 Australian Barramundi, Osteoglossum Leichardti, has been obtained chiefly from the 

 Fitzroy, Dawson, and other inter-tropical rivers debouching on the Eastern Coast of 

 Queensland ; while the second species, O. Jardinei, belongs to the river systems that 

 flow into the Gulf of Carpentaria. Both species attain a length of two or three feet, 

 and are most excellent eating, their flesh being even pronounced by connoisseurs to 

 compare favourably with that of the European salmon. It remains yet to be discovered 

 whether or not representatives of these two last-mentioned interesting genera, Ceratodus 

 and Osteoglossum, have not living representatives in the few but as yet little explored 

 rivers of the Northern districts of Southern and Western Australia. The typical 

 illustrations of these two forms that are reproduced in Plate XXXI., figs. A and B, 

 will assist towards the recognition of any near allies of these fish by those whose 

 avocations may place them on a familiar footing with the indigenous fish fauna of 

 these remote regions. 



Among other members of the fresh-water fish fauna of Australia that invite 

 brief notice is the small family of the Galaxiidae, embracing many of the so-called 

 species of the Native Trout, genus Galaxias, briefly referred to in Chapter I., which, 

 in addition to many species distributed throughout all of the Southern and temperate 

 colonies of Australia, has representatives in New Zealand and the southern districts 

 of South America. All of the members of this family are of small size, not exceeding 

 a few inches in length, and derive their popular name from their somewhat trout-like 

 contour and spotted markings. In Prototroctes marcena, common to the rivers of Victoria 

 and Tasmania, Australia possesses a fish very nearly akin, superficially, in contour and 

 habits, to the English Grayling, Thymallus. It is an excellent sporting fish, and, 

 possessing a corresponding cucumber-like odour, is commonly known as the " Cucumber 

 Mullet." In this instance also it is of interest to note that its nearest generic and 

 specific allies are found in the rivers of New Zealand, the Falkland Islands, and the 

 extreme south of South America. 



This brief record of phenomenal Australian fresh-water fish would be very 

 incomplete without some reference to the remarkably fine races of English Trout 

 and Salmon trout, Salmo fario and S. trutta, which for many years past have 



