Proceedings of the British Association. 



579 



Col. Sabine had seen the ribboned structure of glacial ice mentioned by 

 Prof. Forbes, but doubted whether it had ever been seen in polar ice ; 

 he had never met with it, and did not think it would have escaped 

 his observation. 



Section D. — ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY. 



A Report was read, ' On the present state of the Ichthyology of New 

 Zealand,' by John Richardson, M.D. — The desirableness of a report on 

 the Zoology of that country is very great, on account of its becoming so 

 rapidly populated, and there can be but little doubt that many of 

 the present animal inhabitants will disappear entirely, and others will be 

 driven from their native localities. Of the mammalia, only the dog and 

 rat have been seen, and no snakes. This report is confined to the 

 fishes. Very little has been added to what was made known by those 

 who accompanied Captain Cook in his first and second voyages. They 

 figured or described upwards of sixty-three species, to which nine have 

 been added by Cuvier and Valenciennes, and five by other writers, 

 making in all seventy-seven. Some of these exhibit strange forms and 

 habits. Many are strictly littoral progeny of the minute Crustacea 

 which deposit their spawn in such localities. The Beleophthalion even 

 ascend the beach, like little lizards, to pursue their prey. The Plectog- 

 nathi are adapted for living in rough seas ; their powers of swimming 

 are small ; some are protected with hard spines, like a hedgehog, or sea 

 urchin, and have a power of distending their skins with air or with 

 water, according to circumstances. Marsupial animals characterize the 

 animal kingdom of New Holland, and the same influence seems to have 

 acted on fish to produce a character amongst them as remarkable as 

 the kangaroo amongst mammalia. As their organization seems to fit 

 them for districts with little water, so does that of these fishes. During 

 the season that the water dries up, various species of Batrachi, Gobiodes, 

 Cyprini, and Jpodes, bury themselves in the mud, and like the Lepido- 

 siren of the Gambia, remain in an inert state till the rain falls. The 

 sources from whence the information in this Report was obtained, 

 are chiefly the manuscripts of Solander, with the drawings of For- 

 ster and Parkinson, now in the British Museum. A list of the species 

 accompanied the Report, with remarks by the reporter on the more 

 rare and singular species. 



Dr. Bateman hoped that something more than information got 

 from books would be laid before the Society, so that the existing 

 species of animals might be referred to modern systems of classifica- 

 tion. — Mr. Babington stated, that the object of the Report was to gain 



