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 indiff'erence 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 Colonies 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 Eiver. 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 of 
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and the letterpress and plates already engraved were withdrawn 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, hut I have found 
in it a few observations on the habits of several sorts of the 
interior rivers. 
