to Prof. E. Forbes. 31 



local, as all mine were found in a space not larger than the ship 

 on a bottom of coarse sand and dead shells. Myochama ano- 

 mioides occurred abundantly on Trigonia, also on a Pectunculus, 

 and a Strut hiolaria. Huxley has worked out the anatomy of 

 Trigonia, and figured the animal in his usual masterly manner. 

 The perseverance and skill which he has shown in his anatomical 

 researches will give a great additional value to the zoological re- 

 sults of the voyage. There is abundance of work on board for 

 three or four naturalists, but, having been unassisted to make 

 collections in all the departments, my duties too often merge into 

 those of a mere collector and preserver of specimens. 



Natural history, unlike everything else, does not appear to 

 make much progress in Sydney. The temporary, small, and 

 crowded museum has been steadily merging into a state of chaos 

 ever since I first saw it in 1842. Many of the once- valuable 

 specimens — for example, those collected during Mitchell's first 

 expeditions — are in a wretched state of decay. The adjuncts 

 impennis, calva, &c. might with propriety be attached to the labels 

 of some of the birds ; in a few instances even the stuffing is vi- 

 sible. A new and more suitable building is in progress, and it 

 is to be hoped that with its completion a better state of things 

 will be introduced. 



You have probably heard of the Bunyip, an extraordinary 

 aquatic animal whose existence is attested by the Aborigines of 

 the interior. Some months ago the cranium of a monstrous foal 

 was sent down to Sydney as the head of this animal, and since 

 then the head and neck of another hydrocephalic foal have been 

 prepared by a bird-stuffer of the place, and exhibited in his win- 

 dow to gaping hundreds as a nondescript shot while emerging 

 from a pool of the Lachlan, a river of the interior. Leichhardt's 

 second expedition (in which he proposed to cross from Moreton 

 Bay to Swan River) has totally failed, as has also a subsequent 

 attempt to connect his discoveries with those of Sir Thomas Mit- 

 chell's. A working collector accompanies Mr. Kennedy at pre- 

 sent in the interior, tracing out the Victoria River of Mitchell. 



Moreton Bay, November 1, 1847. 



During our passage to this place, I one day, when a little to the 

 southward of Cape Byron, caught four species of mollusca in the 

 towing-net, a Creseis, a Litiopa, and two others of genera un- 

 known to me. One of these [R. 476]*, about the eighth of an 

 inch in diameter, resembles Ianthina in form, and also in having 

 a vesicular float, but differs from that genus in being furnished 



* It is quite new and most interesting. 



