Blind Victorian Freshwater Crustacea. 559 
Description of Locality. 
The locality is not far from the township of Thorpdale, in 
Gippsland, and the tiny streamlet previously mentioned, 
which eventually feeds the Narracan River, runs somewhat 
rapidly between the bases of two steep hills, but is interrupted 
in its course by logs and fallen tree-fern trunks and other 
forest débris, so that the water is often dammed back and 
turned aside, and sometimes it widens out and forms shallow 
areas, over which the water slowly flows. It is evidently fed 
by spring-water. The valley has a virgin growth of larger 
and smaller forest-trees and ferns, forming a dense under- 
growth, which shuts out to a large extent the direct rays of 
the sun. 
The locality is richly inhabited by ordinary forms of life, 
such as are found in similar situations elsewhere ; amongst 
these may be mentioned two other species of Crustacea 
living in the water in association with the blind forms 
—one a crayfish (Astacopsis sp.) and the other an Amphipod 
(Atyloides Gabrieli, Sayce). Both of these were in consider- 
able numbers and have been found in other localities. 
It will thus be understood that the locality is not shut off 
and isolated by any barrier, but that the struggle for existence 
amongst the inhabitants is in as full force as elsewhere. 
The district generally is of a hilly character and heavily 
timbered. ‘The altitude of the place where the specimens 
were taken is between 800 and 900 feet above the sea-level, 
and distant about 30 miles from the sea-board. The geolo- 
gical formation of the district is, according to the government 
map, Mesozoic, which is overlaid at the locality mentioned 
by a small area of Volcanic. At some distance to the south 
and also northward there are Upper Tertiary deposits, and 
north of this, less than 20 miles distant, there is an extensive 
area of Upper Silurian, stretching for miles northward and 
also eastward and westward. 
Relation of the Species to known Forms. 
The nearest known allies of the several species were con- 
sidered in the original papers describing them; I shall, 
however, briefly allude to them here, but first I shall enumerate 
the known members of the peculiarly Australasian Isopod 
family Phreatoicide, to which Phreatozcoides belongs. 
Phreatoicus typicus, Chilton, and P. assimilis, Chilton, both 
blind inhabitants of subterranean waters in New Zealand.— 
These two, together with other New-Zealand subterranean 
