31 



I certainly do not mean to give to these observations an exagge- 

 rated importance, as I am well convinced that I have not yet 

 seen one-half, perhaps not one-third, of the sorts that inhabit 

 the Bass Straits, and even Hobson's Bay. Very little interest 

 has been, till this time, felt in the Australian Colonies, on sub- 

 jects of natural science, and I have found it impossible to get the 

 fishermen to collect for me the sorts that are not usually 

 considered as edible, and they almost always prefer throwing away 

 specimens valuable for science, and for which they might obtain 

 a remuneration larger than the one they get for eatable fishes, 

 sooner than take the trouble of bringing them to the market. 

 This indifference extends to all classes, and though the Acclima- 

 tisation Society has requested, several times, in tbe public news- 

 papers, persons desirous of helping it in the task of making 

 better known the zoology of Victoria,, to send any specimens 

 they may obtain, no answers have been received. It is singular 

 to remark that not one of the Australian C olonies has a particular 

 work on one single branch of its zoology, whereas every State 

 of North America has a complete series of valuable works 

 on each branch of that science. In this the Australian 

 Democracy seems to be far behind its American sister. The 

 only, very scanty, materials published on the fishes of 

 Victoria consist — 1st. Of a paper of "W. Blandowski on the 

 sorts he had collected in the interior of the Colony, and 

 particularly in the Murray Biver. This paper was to be inserted 

 in the " Transactions of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria," 

 vol. 2, pages 124 to 132. It was accompanied by four plates, 

 representing in a rough way nineteen sorts of fishes, many of 

 which are unknown to me. A rather curious anecdote is told 

 of this production : The author had, according to the custom of 

 naturalists, dedicated several of the sorts to leading members ol 

 the Society ; but some of these gentlemen are said to have taken 

 as an insult what was most probably intended as a compliment, 

 and the letterpress and plates already engraved were withdrawn 

 and destroyed before distribution. I must own that I cannot 

 say much for the scientific value of the paper, but I have found 

 in it a few observations on the habits of several sorts of the 

 interior rivers. 



