26S AUSTRALIAN AND TASMANIA N ANIMALS 



It may also be mentioned here that Australia possesses a representative of the 

 eels (Anguilla austral/is), which has much the same habits as its European relative, 

 migrating for breeding purposes to the ocean, whence the young eels, or elvers, 

 return to ascend the rivers until they find suitable dwelling-places. Like their 

 European relatives, these eels, when prevented, by dams or on account of living in 

 landlocked lakes or ponds, from reaching the sea by a direct route, will travel 

 during freshets across flooded grass for long distances. Similarly, the elvers in 

 Victoria not uncommonly ascend the streams in large companies, when, in case of 

 a barrier intervening, they make their way over comparatively smooth surfaces 

 of rocks. 



Dealing first, and that very briefly, with the land molluscs of 



Australia, attention may be directed to the marked distinction from 



the rest of the continent, as regards its molluscan fauna, of the coast region 





AKCHER-FISH. 



extending from Cape York to Clarence River. The molluscan fauna of this area 

 is quite unlike that of the whole of the rest of Australia and much closer to that 

 of New Guinea, including as it does several Papuan generic types. In this respect 

 the land snails of this part of Queensland agree closely with the mammals, many 

 of which, such as tree-kangaroos and crescent-toothed phalangers, are likewise 

 essentially of a Papuan type. The sea dividing this part of Queensland from New 

 Guinea is, indeed, comparatively shallow, and there can be little doubt that, at no very 

 distant epoch, geologically speaking, these countries were in direct communication 

 with each other, while Queensland was at the same time cut off from the rest of 

 Australia. From these and other considerations an American naturalist, Mr. G. W. 

 Kirkaldy, who was for some time stationed in the Philippines, has suggested that 

 the Australasian zoological realm should be divided into the following provinces : — 

 (1) Austro-Malay, or Papuan, including, in addition to New Guinea, the Aru 

 Islands, etc., the tropical forests of Queensland, New Caledonia, and the neigh- 



