PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS 



OX A 



NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTION 



Made in connection with the Surveying Cruise of H. M. S. 

 " Myrmidon," at Port Darwin and Cambridge Gulf — 

 September to November, 188S — by W. Savilie - Kent, 

 F.L.S , F.Z.S., &c.j Commissioner of Fisheries. Queens- 

 land. 



T was invited last year by Captain the Hon. H. P Foley 

 Yereker, RN, Dr. W. G. K. Barnes, and other officers of 

 H.M S. "Myrmidon, 7 ' to accompany them on their surveying 

 expedition to Cambridge Gulf on the northern sea board of West 

 Australia, and of which district it had been determined to make 

 a more accurate survey, in consequence of the growing importance 

 of the township of Wyndharn as a port of access to the Kimberley 

 Goldfields. Apart from the prospects of an enjoyable trip in the 

 most agreeable company, my alacrity in accepting the invitation 

 was greatly stimulated in view of the opportunities that would 

 be afforded me of obtaining natural history material from a 

 comparatively new held, and at the same time of for ning a more 

 intimate personal acquaintance with tropical life than had 

 previously fallen to my lot. My anticipations in each of these 

 several directions were most agreeably fulfilled, and while 

 sufficient leisure has not been at my disposal to permit of my 

 presenting on this occasion a complete list of the specimens 

 collected, I propose to place on record a brief enu ineration of the 

 more prominent among them, giving a special reference to certain 

 of those forms which have apparently hitherto escaped observation, 

 or have not been recorded in connection with an Australian 

 habitat. 



The period of my explorations in association with H.M.S. 

 " Myrmidon " extended from September 9th, when I joined the 



