453 



THE MOLLUSCA OF MAST HEAD REEF, CAPRICORN 

 GROUP, QUEENSLAND. 



Part T. 



By C. Hedley, F.L.S. 



(Plates xxxvi.-xxxviii.) 



Our revered founder, Sir W. Macleay, pointed to the Great 

 Barrier Reef as a region especially worthy of the investigation of 

 this Society and as a field of superlative importance to zoological 

 students. Example being better than precept, he led the way by 

 devoting wealth and energy to its exploration. 



The results of his researches in the ' Chevert ' on the marine 

 fauna of tropical Queensland are published in the earlier volumes 

 of these Proceedings. 



The explorations of the ' Coquille,' ' Fly,' ' Rattlesnake,' 

 ' Chevert ' ' Alert' and ' Challenger,' and of Messrs. Saville Kent, 

 Haddon and Semon, have made Torres Strait classic ground to 

 the naturalist. South from Torres Strait to Sydney, in a distance 

 of two thousand miles, no particular area has been systematically 

 collected. Consequently we have no knowledge of how far the 

 fauna of either extremity spreads, or where their constituents 

 meet or overlap. Indeed, a vague impression exists that Torres 

 Strait is hardly " Australian," and that the ''Australian " fauna 

 immediately succeeds it on the south. Thus the " Zoological 

 Record " (Article Mollusca) includes Torres Strait in one Province 

 and Queensland in another. 



Perhaps the first and most important deduction to be drawn 

 from the collection now under review is that the Torres Strait 

 fauna flows unbroken down the whole length of the Great Barrier 

 Reef. Indeed, meaning by Torres Strait an expanse of a 

 thousand square miles of twelve fathom water, more Torresian 



