FISH AND FISHERIES. 109 
of Galaaias,” says Mr. Macleay, “are numerous, but so much alike, that 
it is, looking at their distribution, more than probable that they are one 
and all only permanent local varieties of the same fish. 
“But the chief interest attached to these fishes is in their distribution. 
They are found only in the rivers of Southern Chili, Magellan Straits, 
the Falkland Islands, Tasmania, New Zealand, and those parts of Aus- 
tralia where the rivers take their rise in the Snowy Mountains or in cold 
elevated table-lands ; so that in fact we find this singular fish in all the 
lands which extend into the colder regions of the Southern Pacific and 
nowhere else. The deduction from this singular fact is very plain. At 
one period,—probably very remote even in a geological sense,—the area 
of land above the sea in the antarctic regions must have been very much 
in excess of what it is at present, at all events sufficiently extended to 
admit of some kind of. continuity across the whole width of the Pacific 
between the southern extremity of South America and Australia. 
There is no other. way of accounting for the appearance of these fishes 
in such widely different localities.” : 
The subject thus suggested is a very large one, and is worthy of 
attention in connection with the whole of the Australian fauna. The 
agency of birds in transporting ova must not, moreover, be lost sight of, 
though there are difficulties in the way of that explanation as well. It 
should be mentioned, moreover, that some of our Australian freshwater 
mollusca have a very wide range in the Pacific, while the marine 
molluscan fauna is comparatively restricted. The spread of ova by 
means of birds is the usual way of accounting for this. 
The Australian Grayling. 
Though not a fish of New South Wales, it may be as well to mention 
here the Australian Grayling, which in character, habits, and the manner 
of its capture is almost identical with the English fish of that name. 
In shape there is some difference between the two fish. The local 
Grayling is smaller, of a more uniform thickness, and with a less promi- 
nent back-fin; but it possesses strongly the peculiar Grayling odour. 
A newly-caught fish smells exactly like a dish of fresh-sliced cucumber. 
It is widely distributed in Victoria, and very abundant in all the fresh- 
water streams of Tasmania. It is the only native fish which affords any 
sport to the fly-fisher ; but it prefers a red worm, and can be best taken 
with the coarsest tackle. It seldom exceeds a pound in weight. As it 
has a well marked adipose fin it was referred to the Salmonide, but it 
is now placed in the family Haplochitonide, a group of fresh-water fishes 
which represents the Salmonoids in the Southern Hemisphere. Only two 
genera are known, viz. :—1. Haplochiton, fresh-water fishes, abundant 
in the lakes and streams near the Straits of Magellan, coasts of Chili 
and the Falkland Isles. It has the general habit of Trout, but without 
scales. 2. Prototroctes, with the habit of Corregonus, scaly and with 
minute teeth. The Australian Grayling, which used to be known as 
Thymallus australis, belongs to this genus, and is called Prototroctes 
marcena. In Melbourne it goes by the name of the Yarra Herring. 
There is another species in New Zealand. 
