THE GEELONG NATURALIST. s x 26] 
the mass of knowledge being accumulated by the workers, is a 
guarantee that future meetings will not be lacking in that interest 
which previous meetings have aroused. 
Your committee would still urge upon the members—especially 
the recently elected—to study some branch in a practical manner, 
remembering that it is little by little that great ends are attained. 
We have in this district, natural advantages, which render it 
specially favourable to all branches of Field Naturalist work— 
mountain and low-land, forest and plain, river and lake, inland sea 
and open ocean, quarry and cliff, exposing varied geological form- 
ations, each present some interesting study, and it only waits 
the careful investigator to interpret these manuscripts of Nature. 
The sincere thanks of the Club are due, and are hereby grate- 
fully tendered to the various kindred societies in all parts of the 
world, and also to the private individuals by whose generous 
donations of publications and specimens our library and museum 
have been greatly enriched. 
On behalf of Committee, 
A. B. E. WILSON, 
Hon. Sec. 
THE TUPONG OR MARBLE FISH. 
Bx T. S. Harr, M.A., Corresponding Member. 
Tue fish in question was originally described by Count de Castlenau, 
a well known authority on Coleoptera and Fishes, who for some few 
years held the position of French Consul in Melbourne. He had 
but a single specimen, which was caught in Bass Straits, and he was 
so struck by some points in its structure, that he founded a new 
genus for its reception. The genus to which it is most closely 
allied is Aphritis, and in consequence he gave it the name of 
Pseudaphritis bassii. Mr J. Douglas Ogilby has recently* seen fit 
to reject Castlenau’s genus and refer the species to Aphritis. He 
gives a very full description, which, however, differs somewhat from 
that of Castlenau, probably on aecount of individual variation. 
For many years only a few stray specimens were received at the 
National Museum in Melbourne, but a couple of years ago the fish 
became very abundant in the streams round Melbourne, where it 
was known by its native name “Tupong.” The late Mr J. 
Bracebridge Wilson sent a specimen for identification to the 
Biological School, which was caught in the Barwon, where it was 
*Records of the Australian Museum, vol. 1, p. 67. 
