4 
NOTES OF THE EDIBLE FISHES OF VICTOBIA. 
muat not only consider the present forms, but also those of pi*evious 
ages, of which tlie I’euiains are imbedded in the layem of the 
eaidhly formations, and are called /o,s*s/7.s'. As an instance of this 
I may say that we shall thus be led to the conclusion that Tas- 
mania has, till a modern peiiod, formed a- part of the Australian 
continent, and that New Zealand, on the contrary, has been 
sepai*ated at a very distant pei'iod. If we apply these ininciples 
to tlie Australian continent itself, and if we endeavour to form an 
opinion as to whether it has always been isolated, or if, at a distant 
age, it has been united witli other hinds, we must bear in mind that 
hy a singular chance the hi‘st navigators, the first naturalists, who 
visited tlie southern continent, «)l>tained nearly the totality of the 
most extraordinaiy forms of tlie zoology of Australia. 
Tlie hladc '^vmn bad been seen by the old Dutch navigators; 
the duck-billed p/o//yyor.s*, the pouched kmujarooH, tiie abnormal 
echidna, the curious wortihuJ, the gigantic emu, vm’e observed 
eitlier by Cook or by the le;u-ncd naturalist Peron, wlio, in the 
beginning of this eeiitniy, made so many interesting discoveries 
during tlie exploring ex}>cdition of Captain Baudin. Tlic plants 
brought back by Banks and Solaiidcr, and those that Venteiiat 
desiu-ibed from the Imperial gardens of the Malniaison, were not 
less abnormal and singular ; thus the idea spread universality tliat 
the natui'al productions of tliis continent were all of a most par- 
ticular type. It was thought tliat eveiy animal, every plant, 
inhabiting the Australian regions, must, of course, be of a most 
extraordinary form, and that the animal life of this continent had 
been created to upset all the admitted ideas of organised beings. 
It appeared tliat nature had, in a sort of playful freak, taken tlie 
task of destroying all the so-called natuml classitications, and had 
endeavoured to teach wisdom, even to men of science, in obliging 
them to acknowledge their entire inability to understand the 
work of the Almighty Creator. 
Since then numerous naturalists have explored a great [lortion 
of Austmlia, and immense collections of sjiecimcns liave been 
forwarded to most of the European museums, and it has been 
found tliat, putting aside a few curious beings, the greater part 
of the animals could lie placed in natural groups found in other 
parts of the world, and that on the Avhole these regions did not 
])erlm]js present a more extraordinary fauna than might have 
been expected from their isolated jiosition. 
These considerations have been particularly suggested to me 
by the very curious theory lately hazarded by a Avriter in the 
Bulletin of the Geographical Society of France (February, 1872, 
}>age lGO,and following.) The author, Mr. A. Dufresne, emits the 
unexpected idea that Australia Avas an aerolite, a sort of moon, 
