NOTES ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BELL ROCK. 99 



instance how dissimilar the same object may appear from 

 different view-points, our lonely habitation never seems to 

 assume such a pleasing aspect as when seen vanishing astern. 

 Verily, it is we who appreciate the truth of the Irishman's 

 illogical remark that " the best thing about going away from 

 home is getting back again." 



A round of the different fishing pools ,was made this 

 month at low water, resulting in the capture of a most 

 unhealthy-looking specimen of a poddley in the "Hospital" 

 (Neill's Pool). Long, lank, and leau, a post-mortem revealed 

 the liver attenuated to a mere thread. It is most remarkable 

 why these sickly fish should favour this pool alone. About 

 twenty feet in diameter and twelve feet deep, with the 

 bottom thickly strewn with rounded boulders, there is always 

 a shallow wash into it at the lowest state of the tide. Possibly 

 its greater depth offers a safer refuge for these convalescents 

 than the other pools. Whatever the reason, the fact remains 

 that in this pool alone these specimens are found; not only 

 poddlies, but lythe and cod as well. With the flying fish of 

 the tropics we are more or less familiar, and of tree-climbing 

 fish and overland travellers we have the testimony of travellers 

 that such perverse specimens do exist. The ceratodus of 

 Queensland, for instance, which, with its peculiar respiratory 

 arrangement and ambulatory fins is enabled to transport itself 

 over swampy ground in migrating from pool to pool, a feat 

 suggestive of the Yankee's shallow-draught steamer, to which 

 an ordinary meadow was easily navigable, providing there 

 had been a heavy dewfall. The cause of these reflections was 

 the discovery of a small fish, some four inches in length, on 

 the cleaning path encircling our lantern, over a hundred feet 

 from its usual habitat. Of the "cobbler" variety, the ex- 

 panded pectoral fins might, with a little imagination, be 

 imbued with the powers of flight, but more than likely our 

 visitor owed its exalted position to some predatory gull, 

 which, unable to bolt its victim or escape from covetous neigh- 

 bours, had dropped it where found. 



A solitary lapwing was our only feathered visitor for the 



