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HANDBOOK OF MELBOURNE,





HANDBOOK OF MELBOURNE.
FOR THE USE OF MEMBERS OF THE
AUSTRALASIAN ASSOCIATION
FOR THE
ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE.
MELBOURNE MEETING, 1890.
EDITED BY PROFESSOR W. BALDWIN SPENCER, M.A.
Melbourne.
SPECTATOR PUBLISHING COMPANY LIMITED.
1890.





DU
228
14h
PREFACE.
The object of this Handbook is to give an epitome of the
History, Commerce and Manufactures, Meteorology, and
Flora and Fauna of Melbourne and the Colony of Victoria
generally, together with a brief outline of the habits and
distribution of the aboriginal inhabitants.
Limits of space necessitate brevity in the various
chapters ; but, as this is probably the first occasion on
which any such series dealing with the Colony has been
brought together, it is hoped that the Handbook may
prove of value to members of the Association, for whose
especial use it has been compiled.
MELBOURNE,
January, 1890.
575644
AUSTRALIA





CONTENTS.
I. HISTORY OF VICTORIA. By ALEXANDER
SUTHERLAND, M.A. . . . . . 9
II. GEOLOGY OF MELBOURNE. By G. S.
Griffiths, F.G.S. . . . . . 26
III. ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA. By LORIMER
FISON, M.A. . . . . . . 45
IV. ZOOLOGY: VERTEBRATA. By A. H. S.
Lucas, M.A, B.Sc. . . . . . 56
V. 200LOGY: INVERTEBRATA. By A. DENDY,
M.Sc., F.L.S. - . . . . . 74
VI. ENTOMOLOGY. By C. FRENCH, F.L.S.,
Government Entomologist · · · · 97
VII. BOTANY. By C. A. TopP, M.A., LL.B. - - 110
VIII. COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURES. By
War. H. THODEY - - - - - 118
IX. CLIMATE. By R. L. J. ELLERY, C.M.G.,
F.R.S., F.R.A.S., Government Astronomer · 134


---
-





THE HISTORY OF VICTORIA.
BY ALEXANDER SUTHERLAND, M.A.
THE foot of civilisation first trod Victorian soil on
the Christmas of 1797, when that stout-hearted
surgeon, George Bass, spent nine days upon the
shores of Gippsland. His was the most courageous
voyage on record. In an open whale-boat, with a
crew of six convicts, he had faced a great ocean, had
explored 300 miles of coast, and now, while a wild
gale blew over him, he was sheltering his frail craft
in a little inlet, waiting to prosecute that further
voyage in which he was to explore 300 miles more
of coast never seen before by discoverer. After a
wild and adventurous time he reached as far as
Western Port, which he roughly examined. Then
returning along the shores, he brought with him to
Sydney a pencilled chart, which gave to science its
first knowledge of Bass Strait and of the coasts of
Victoria. Five years later there came explorers
from the other side. The “Lady Nelson,” a
schooner of some 60 tons burthen, despatched by
the English Government for survey purposes, and
commanded by Lieut. Grant, sighted the shores of
Australia at Cape Northumberland, and holding
eastward discovered and named Portland Bay, Cape
Otway, Cape Schanck, and intermediate features of
the coast. It was the same vessel which, com-
manded by Lieut. Murray, a year later first sailed
into Port Phillip, though the gallant Flinders was


10
THE HISTORY OF VICTORIA.
only two months behind, when, quite independently,
he worked the “ Investigator " through the Heads,
and rowed in his barge over the waters of the age-
long silent inlet.
Flinders made a nautical survey of all the coasts
of Victoria, such as left little to be discovered from
the seaward side ; but it was not till 20 years later
that the world learnt what manner of country lay
within those rocky bulwarks or those fringing sands.
It was in 1824 that Hamilton Hume, accompanied
by Captain Hovell, set out from Lake George in New
South Wales to penetrate the secret of the south.
They had a party of six convicts, a waggon each, and
horses. They crossed the Murrumbidgee by an
ingenious device. They discovered the Murray,
which they called the Hume. They saw and named
the Ovens River; then, following very much the line
of the present railway from Albury, they passed
through a land silent and lonely, but offering a
smiling welcome to the coming settler. Unluckily
they turned too soon out of the south-west course,
which would have been the wisest, and struck due
south, involving themselves among the ranges that
lie behind the Yan Yean. In vain did they toil and
struggle through those wildernesses of giant trees;
in vain did they cut their way through fern-tree gully
and over scrub-encumbered ravine. They fell back
again, and holding to the west crossed the hills just
as the railway does at present from Kilmore to
Beveridge. Then their course was easy. Over
grassy plains that delighted the pastoral heart of
Hume they passed by easy stages; but by keeping so
far to the west they were near the site of Geelong ere
they came within view of the sea. A rapid journey
brought them home with news that was sure, sooner
or later, to bring settlers and flocks to the fair lands
they had traversed.








THE HISTORY OF VICTORIA.
11
Accordingly the Government at Sydney proposed
to form a convict settlement, but trusting to the
ill-informed Hovell, they sent it to Western Port,
which he declared to have been the inlet they
had reached. The settlement struggled for nearly a
year with adverse circumstances, and then the little
township it had formed on the shores of the
port was abandoned.
But at this time there were persons who would
have shown in private enterprise more sense and
determination than had been exhibited in the
Government scheme. A lawyer named Gellibrand,
and a roving unsettled youth of the name of John
Batman, sent in a petition in 1824 for a grant
of land at Western Port, in the hopes of utilising
the fine pastoral country said to lie thereabouts.
Their request was refused, on the ground that
instructions from England forbade the unnecessary
scattering of settlement. Lonely out-posts, it was
considered, were dangerous, and involved increased
expense.
Yet there were others resident on the shores of
Victoria who made no pretence of asking leave.
These were the sealers, who lived in knots of
twos and threes and fours, along all the coast
from Gippsland to Kangaroo Island. A favourite
haunt of theirs was Portland Bay, and there, in
1829, Captain Dutton formed a regular station, with
substantial buildings. Thither in 1833 came Edward
Henty on his way from West Australia to Tasmania.
He liked the look of the land. He saw that whales
were plentiful, and seals by no means scarce. In
the following year he was back with flocks, and men,
and apparatus; he brought whaling boats with
him; he built a substantial house; he erected
sheds, and cultivated the soil, and from that time
forward Victoria was the permanent abode of


12
THE HISTORY OF VICTORIA.
civilised men. He, too, applied to the British
Government for formal leave to settle in these waste
parts of the earth. It was refused. But the march
of events forced the authorities to accede to a course
they were loth to initiate.
For Captain Sturt in 1832 had taken that
memorable voyage of his down the River Murray ;
the first to float on its winding stream. He had,
in an open boat, accompanied by the now veteran,
but then ardent George Macleay, and six convicts,
rowed down the stream to Lake Alexandrina, and
then through appalling hardships had pushed his
way back to civilisation. His two volumes, published
soon after, made known the fact that land of
excellent quality lay all along the valley of that
river, and the news awakened the greatest interest
in Tasmania John Batman, now some ten years
older, felt his old enthusiasm revive. He proposed
to Gellibrand to take up land in that favoured
district without waiting for legal permission. The
lawyer, then in good practice at Hobart, but largely
interested in pastoral enterprises, agreed, and became
chairman of an association of 10 or 12 members,
who subscribed funds to send over John Batman on
a reconnoitring expedition.
And so in May, 1835, the “ Rebecca" took
him on board at the mouth of the Tamar, and after
a tedious voyage he entered Port Phillip Heads.
Landing on the Geelong side of the inlet, he followed
up the shores of the Werribee district, observing
with delight the sheep-bearing capacities of these
treeless, but grassy plains. Subsequently the vessel
was worked up the Bay to the mouth of the Yarra,
and Batman in the ship’s boat rowed up the stream,
On the rough chart he made, he marked in upon
the site of Melbourne the words, “ This will be
the place for a village.” Landing with several men








THE HISTORY OF VICTORIA.
13
he made his way inland for some days, reaching the
neighbourhood of Sunbury; then holding eastward,
came upon the Merri Creek, on the banks of which
he caused his memorable treaty with the blacks
to be decorated with the serpentine strokes, which
he called their signatures; and when Batman
returned to Tasmania bearing this precious document,
the company, somewhat increased in numbers, took
immediate steps to occupy this fine grazing country,
and sent over a surveyor named Wedge to estimate
the area of the estate they were supposed to have
bought for blankets, tomahawks, and toys. A
rough division was made among the members of the
association, and each of them began to hurry over
his stock as fast as vessels could be chartered.
But there were other people in Tasmania whose
regards were fixed on the pastoral lands across the
Strait. An association was formed, having Mr,
Dobson for its chairman and W. J.T. Clarke for one
of its members. They also sent forward their stock
and prepared to follow and settle in the new district.
Another company was formed by the energy of John
Pascoe Fawkner, a restless publican of Launceston.
He joined himself with several tradesmen of that
town in order to fit out a schooner, the “Enterprise,”
for a trip to Western Port, where Fawkner proposed
to get from the blacks of that district a document
analogous to that received by Batman from the
natives of the Yarra basin. He was too seasick,
however, to prosecute the voyage, and was landed
at the mouth of the Tamar.
His party crossed to Western Port, disliked the
appearance of the country for pastoral purposes,
and carried their vessel round to Port Phillip.
Entering the Yarra, they settled down on the wattle-
scented banks of the river, not far from the spot
where the little creek, which now is Elizabeth-street,


14
THE HISTORY OF VICTORIA.
discharged its waters into the main stream. Here
they were warned off by men employed by Batman's
party, but, declining to budge, they made prepara-
tions for permanent occupation. Soon after Fawkner
himself came over, and built the first house of the
nascent settlement.
Meanwhile petitions were on their way to England
from Batman and his friends, requesting Imperial
recognition of the native grant. This was refused,
but the authorities in England, hearing that quite a
stream of settlement was flowing into the Port Phillip
district, wisely resolved to sanction and regulate a
movement which they could not have arrested.
Instructions were sent to Governor Bourke at
Sydney to make all necessary arrangements for the
formation of the province. Bourke at once sent
down a party of three surveyors, who proceeded to
lay out the streets of a town on the banks of the
Yarra. He himself came round in March, 1837, to
see the district for himself. He named the chief
streets of the city that was to be, and being dissatis-
fied with the progress of the work, he left Mr.
Hoddle to act as surveyor-general and prepare plans
of the land for sale by auction.
Accordingly, three months after his return to
Sydney, the work was done, the plans were ready,
and the first land sale was held on June 1st, 1837,
so that the city of Melbourne is almost exactly
contemporaneous with the reign of Queen Victoria.
Up to this date the people had been living in turf
huts, or in houses made of wattle boughs daubed
over with clay. Now, these were all cleared away,
and for months the open wocdland glades rang with
axe, and hammer, and saw; while weatherboard
houses were being erected, and the streets began to
show some signs of their alignment. Soon they








THE HISTORY OF VICTORIA.
15
started the making of bricks, and Fawkner's Hotel,
the most imposing edifice of the settlement, was of
that material.
At this time Captain Lonsdale was acting as
magistrate in charge of the new district; but, in
1839, there came from England Charles Joseph
Latrobe, appointed by the Colonial Office to be
superintendent of what it was even then intended
should be before long a new colony. For this was
an eminently colonising period of English history.
It was 20 years since the great wars had ceased.
There was little outlet for adventurous spirits, and
there was felt the increasing pressure of population.
Hence came the great emigration schemes that
founded Perth and Adelaide. These had been costly,
and had involved the British Government in heavy
expense. It welcomed a self-directed, self-supported
colonial enterprise that promised to form a peculiarly
advantageous field for emigration, and the stream of
settlement that had been anticipated was not long
in setting in from England to Port Phillip.
In large measure this was due to the publication
of the travels of Sir Thomas Mitchell. That officer,
who was Surveyor-General of New South Wales, had
in 1836 been sent to follow up the work of Sturt.
He had descended the Murray to its junction with
the Darling ; then, turning back, had bent his course
southward and westward along the valleys of the
Loddon and the Avoca, till he reached the waters of
the Glenelg. He saw the Henty family at Portland ;
then, turning back, crossing the ranges near the site
of Ballarat, he had found his way home over the
Murray. He had seen and named many rivers, and
some mountains, but he had above all traversed a
district, grassy and promising beyond all other parts
of Australia he had seen. He called it Australia


16
THE HISTORY OF VICTORIA.
Felix, and that name, as well as his glowing descrip-
tions, determined to the shores of Victoria a large
share of that vigorous emigration then looking round
for a suitable destination.
There came a surprising number of cadets of good
family, with high spirits, abundant enterprise, and a
little capital. These took up runs; when, by paying
a license fee of £10 per annum, they had the right
to depasture on Crown lands as many sheep each as
they pleased. Soon all the land around Geelong was
taken up, and that between Geelong and Melbourne ;
out by Dandenong, and away down to Western Port,
and as far up as Mount Macedon, the country was
all apportioned in separate runs, whereon the young
fellows lived a rough but enjoyable life in the open
air, while their flocks increased around them. Then
settlement pushed out to Colac, and up to Ballarat.
From Portland as a centre, squatters and their sheep
radiated over all the Western District, while from the
north came the "overlanders ” driving their cattle
and their flocks from Sydney over the Murray.
These settled along the valleys of the Ovens and
Goulburn. And so all the central parts of the
colony were occupied before 1842. A year or two
later increasing pressure sent the squatters north-
west into the Wimmera district, and south-east into
Gippsland, and in 1846 the whole area of the colony
was thinly occupied by about 800 stations, carrying
3,000,000 of sheep.
The process of peopling the colony was greatly
quickened by what was called “Bounty Immigration."
The young squatters could afford to come out on their
own resources, but in the colony they could have done
little without the labour of those who had strong
arms to work with, but no cash to bring them so far.
The money, therefore, that was derived from the
sale of land within the district was set apart for








THE HISTORY OF VICTORIA.
17
bringing out labourers for the district, and for a long
time the funds were ample. After deducting 20 per
cent. of the land fund, to be used for the purpose of
making the aborigines comfortable, if possible, all
the balance was employed in assisting immigration.
In one year as many as 9000 persons were thus
imported, and the total up to 1845, when the process
was discontinued, must have been over 30,000.
Thus Melbourne became an influential little city
of 10,000 inhabitants, Geelong and Portland were
thriving little towns, Belfast, Warrnambool, Hamil-
ton, and Kilmore were fast rising into importance ;
and, while the district grew in wealth and population,
it grew also impatient of the delay that was taking
place in its separation as an independent colony.
Many were the meetings, and much the eloquence
displayed, but Irish troubles and Continental politics
blocked the way in London till 1848, and then there
were so many preliminaries that the spring of 1850
was advancing ere the Bill introduced into the House
of Commons was duly passed. But this Act not only
constituted the new district into the colony of Vic-
toria, but gave to all the colonies, Victoria included,
autonomous powers, and left them for all practical
purposes independent.
The news arrived at the end of 1850, but the Act
did not come into operation until July 1st, 1851, and
great were the rejoicings; it took three days to
contain the festivities. Latrobe became Lieutenant-
Governor. He appointed a Ministry; and a Legis-
lative Council was elected to administer affairs, and
frame such a form of constitution as might best
satisfy the political aspirations of the people.
The first 15 years of the colony's history are
bound up with pastoral interests. Its progress was
dependent on sheep, and its exports consisted mainly
of wool and skins. But in the early part of 1851


18
THE HISTORY OF VICTORIA.
Hargraves was making his discoveries in New South
Wales, and for the next 10 years the history of
Victoria centres round the pursuit for gold.
While streams of men were leaving the colony, not
only for New South Wales, but also for California,
the prospects of Victoria seemed likely to receive a
check, and local committees of citizens sought, by
offering rewards, to stimulate the search for gold.
But this was scarcely needed. The tale of the hundred-
weight of gold discovered near Bathurst set the
people of the colony in so great an excitement that
very soon sands, and rocks, and river-beds in all
directions were being examined by eager eyes. The
first news of success came from Mount Buninyong.
On the lower slopes of that volcanic hill there was a
small township, and its inhabitants amused their
leisure with the prevailing craze. One of them
named Hiscocks found in a little sandy patch at the
bottom of a gully what were unmistakable gold
grains. Of these he gathered enough to fill a
match-box. Meantime, there was another searcher
on the right track at the station of Clunes. This
was Esmond, who had been a coach-driver in the
Western District, and had gone to California to seek
his fortune, but had come back without it. He
seems to have been struck with the general resem-
blance of some of the country among the lower
ridges of the Dividing Range to the auriferous
country in California, and in his examination he
observed some golden specks in pieces of quartz
jutting out of a bank upon a little creek ; then
trying the bed of the creek itself a little further
down, he came upon remunerative supplies of that
metal which so many persons were then so eagerly
seeking. In other parts of the country small finds
had been made, but the fame of these two attracted
all the treasure-seekers, and ere long there was a








THE HISTORY OF VICTORIA.
19
crowd at Buninyong and a crowd at Clunes. How-
ever, the actual result was poor in both cases, and
as so often happened, the occupants of each place,
finding their hopes disappointed where they were,
became possessed with the idea that the other must
be the lucky spot. Hence there were two adverse
streams of would-be diggers. They met midway,
and each disillusioning the other, they settled down
to examine the intermediate country. The result
was the discovery of Ballarat, the richest goldfield
the world has ever seen. Who was the first dis-
coverer it would now be idle to assert, for there
were so many on the ground, and the lucky ones
were so secretive when they had struck the fortunate
spot that practically there were several parties, all
equally original in their discoveries, and there is no
evidence to give priority to one rather than to
another.
But Golden Point, on the banks of the Yarrowee
Creek, became for a time a magic name, not only in
Australia, but ere long in Europe also. At first the
miners when they “bottomed” on clay abandoned
their shafts as being worked out; it was not till one
more enterprising than the rest had carried his
excavation through the clay that the richest treasures
of all were discovered. Then came the opening up
of the “ jewellers' shops,” and gully after gully was
baptised with fantastic names by the crowds that
poured in by thousands to unearth their riches.
Throughout all the colony the effect was at once
felt. All classes were more or less penetrated by
the thirst for gold. There were but two policemen
left in Melbourne. The warders of the gaols resigned
in a body. The Customs Department was almost
deserted. Of the ships in the Bay three-fourths of
the crews deserted, and the other fourth were kept to
their duty only by being carefully watched ; two


20
THE HISTORY OF VICTORIA.
large vessels were left without a single man, and ten
times the usual rate of wages could not secure
others to take the places of the deserters.
Meanwhile the road to Ballarat was like one long
processional picnic; in a fortnight there were about
half the adult men of the colony either on the road
or on the goldfields, and the discovery very soon
afterwards of the Bendigo diggings completed the
craze. Multitudes began to pour in from the
adjacent colonies. Adelaide became as deserted as
Melbourne or Geelong; Sydney also felt the effects
of the madness, and ere long 50,000 men were at
Bendigo, in addition to 10,000 at Ballarat. What
busy scenes they were! It was all surface digging.
Half-a-dozen “ mates” formed a little company;
one cooked and took charge of the home, if an
improvised tent might so be named. One worked at
the windlass, and one carried the stuff to the creek,
where another washed it to get the gold out of it;
while the others toiled at the bottom of the shallow
shaft to send up the dirt in buckets to the top. An
aspect of good order, good spirits, and open-air
enjoyment characterised the scene, and as the aver-
age earnings for the first year or so amounted to
nearly £200 per annum per man, there was much
prosperity on the fields. New diggings were con-
stantly being discovered, Creswick's Creek, where
Creswick now is, Forest Creek, which is now Castle-
maine, May-Day Hills, which is now Beechworth,
and so on; and, as time had now elapsed for the
news to reach Europe, vessels began to appear in
Hobson's Bay in numbers unparalleled in colonial
history. For some time there came an average of a
ship per day, and all were laden with adventurous
hearts bound for the diggings. In the next two
years some 200,000 men thus arrived. At first, by
their very numbers, they were to themselves the








THE HISTORY OF VICTORIA.
cause of much distress. The sudden influx of so
many persons into a colony containing not above a
third of their number taxed the resources of the
place beyond all calculation. Provisions, house-
rent, and, above all, cost of carriage to the diggings,
became fabulously high, and thousands starved in
Melbourne who had hoped to revel in wealth at
Bendigo.
But by degrees matters righted themselves, and
the majority of the fortune seekers made the colony
their home, though the late comers got but little
gold. For four or five years the surface gold had
held out; but still the diggers continued to arrive.
Then there was little more gold to be had from
shallow sinking. Deep shafts had to be made and
elaborately timbered ; and then it was found at
Ballarat that the miner had, in his descent, to
fight his way through three great layers of bluestone,
which once, as molten lava, had buried the beds of
miocene creeks. Time was now needed, and capital.
The lucky ones of the previous years invested their
fortunes, and hired the labour of the unlucky.
Hence, à reorganisation of the industrial elements
on the goldfields. Large companies began to be
formed, and by the year 1860 Ballarat was the
scene of operation of great associations with ample
machinery and miles of " drives” underground. In
Sandhurst, as Bendigo was for municipal purposes
named, when the surface gold was exhausted, the
miners attacked the quartz, whence the gold had
been derived by the age-long action of streams.
But this, too, required time, and capital, and organisa-
tion; and so on all the goldfields. Thus, in 1862,
Victoria was a great ramification of mining specula-
tion; it was no longer necessary to purchase a
“swag” and be off to the diggings in order to be in
the thick of the excitement. All that was wanted








THE HISTORY OF VICTORIA.
23
temper of the people was with the diggers in
their demands, though adverse to their revolt.
Under the pressure of popular feeling a constitution
was framed of the most liberal complexion. A
Lower House elected by manhood suffrage, an Upper
House elected on a property qualification formed the
Legislature; while vote by ballot, and many similar
concessions were made to the democratic feeling
of the community. But when the policies of
protection and free selection of the public lands
came uppermost in the discussion of affairs, it
soon appeared that the democratic party, though
a majority in the country, was a minority in the two
Legislative bodies. Hence arose two struggles, first
for the payment of members in the Lower House, so
that the working man might sit in that body as
the actual representative of his class; and secondly,
for the reform of the constitution of the Upper
House, so as to make it more amenable to public
feeling.
From 1864 to 1880 the battle waged around four
fundamental questions, with bitter words and strong
feelings; yet the colony throve. First the policy of
free selection triumphed, and after various modifica-
tions the principle was established that any man
who chose to reside on his farm and work it, could
obtain 320 acres of Crown lands on payment of one
shilling per acre per annum for 20 years. Then the
principle of protection to native industry was carried,
with a proviso, then understood, that it was to last
but for 15 or 20 years. Payment of members
followed, and when the reform of the Council was
effected in accordance with popular notions, about
1880, the period of turmoil came to an end. This
important epoch was appropriately, though not inten-
tionally, marked by a great Exhibition, which had a
most salutary effect upon the manufacturing interests


24
THE HISTORY OF VICTORIA.
of the colony, now growing large and varied. And
on its commission met and fraternised the various
combatants who had waged a somewhat embittered
warfare for years. Sir James M'Culloch, Mr. James
Service, Sir Graham Berry, Mr. Higinbotham, Mr.
Gillies, and so on through a long list of names
honoured in the colony, all were joined in friendly
rivalry to do the best for the country on that
auspicious occasion. Since then nothing but peace
has prevailed. The free selectors have become
successful farmers, supplying the colony with all its
food stuffs, sometimes having a surplus for export.
The manufacturers have in many departments over-
taken the local demand, and in all have made great
strides in that direction. The wool industry has
fallen off a little, and the production of gold is a
vanishing quantity, but on tho solid basis of agricul-
tural, pastoral, and manufacturing activity, the
position of the colony promises everything satisfac-
tory for the future.
There was always a scientific enthusiasm in the
colony. When it was but a couple of years old, a
mechanics' institute was formed, with its courses of
scientific lectures and its little museum. A botanic
garden was laid out when Melbourne was three years
old, and when the goldfields had brought to its
shores those crowds of energetic and intelligent men,
the fervour for knowledge increased. A National
Museum, a University, a great Public Library, on a
plan to cost eventually a million of money, and to
form a vast national repository of all that science,
literature, and art could provide, were the notable
features of that period; but, amongst them must
also be reckoned the Royal Society, the result of the
amalgamation of two rival efforts in the cause of
Science. That Society has completed some 30
years of existence, with a volume of papers for


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THE HISTORY OF VICTORIA.
nearly every year, wherein much valuable work is
conglomerated with much that is not valuable.
This has always been the central scientific body of
this colony, but in all probability a larger body of
work of permanent value has been performed by
smaller and more specialised societies, such as the
Microscopical, the Field Naturalist, the Geographical,
the Acclimatisation Society, and so on.
But the science work of the colony will probably
be best done in the future, when its own natives
attack indigenous problems, after having been duly
prepared for the task by the rapidly growing science
department of the University, and it is not an
extravagant hope to expect that the Australasian
Association for the Advancement of Science will
have a powerful influence in determining in that
direction the ambitions and energies of many of
those born in the colonies.


THE
GEOLOGY OF MELBOURNE.
By G. S. Griffiths, F.G.S.
The site of Melbourne and its suburbs affords to the
geologist much that is of interest, for it is composed
of formations which have been assigned to many
different periods.
The flat between the city and Emerald Hill is an
old river valley, filled up with Post-pliocene clays,
merging upwards into recent alluvium. The Flinders-
street Station stands, in part, upon the edge of a
Pliocene lava flow. A much older, that is to say, a
Miocene lava, lies under Collins-street West,
whilst Silurian sandstones—far more ancient-
supply the foundations for Collins-street East. At
least two extinct volcanoes raise their isolated cones
within twenty miles of the General Post Office.
Within a yet shorter distance-exposed in the banks
of a small tributary of the Saltwater river,—there is
a Tertiary limestone abounding in various shells,
the tests of sea-urchins, and other remains of the
animals which once lived in a sea which has retreated
from the locality; whilst a walk of about half an
hour's duration from the Kew tramway terminus
will take the visitor to the outcrop of a quartz reef,
which once yielded to the miner gold at the rate of
half an ounce to the ton.
Melbourne owes its geological richness partly to
the circunistance that it stands upon the margin of








TIE GEOLOGY OF MELBOURNE.
27
an old continental area. For long ages Australia
has been in a state of slow vertical oscillation, and
its lower lying portions have frequently been dipped
beneath and raised above the sea level. With these
movements the coastal line changed its position,
sometimes very considerably, so that the site of
Melbourne often disappeared beneath this secular
tide. When this occurred sands and clays were
deposited; and when at other periods it was left
high and dry and far inland, then the runlet and
the creek became busy all over its surface, softening
and removing the sedimentary beds of other epochs.
Another leading feature of its geology is that the
metropolis stands upon the extreme eastern edge of
a most extensive series of lava flows. Twice at least
the channels of the Yarra and the Saltwater River,
the Merri and the Darebin Creeks, have been filled
to their brims with basalt, and as often the streams
have cut new courses down the old valleys. Emerald
Hill is a low rise of Miocene lava, which rests upon,
and so has preserved, the sandy beds of a shallow
estuary. The same description applies to the basalt
at Spencer-street Station, and also to that of the
hill at the Flemington Racecourse. The younger
and later series of lavas may be seen at Richmond,
filling in an ancient river channel, and the rugged
walls of the great quarries there expose excellent
sections which show the large number of flows
which made up the mass.
The fundamental formation exposed in the area is
of upper Silurian age, and it consists of contorted
and often vertical beds of sandstone, shale, and
coarse slate. This formation outcrops on both sides
of the Moonee Ponds Creek from the lower gorge of
Pascoe Vale to the Royal Park, and thence across
the University grounds, through Fitzroy, parts of
Collingwood, Richmond, and the Eastern Hill.


28
THE GEOLOGY OF MELBOURNE,
Another, and a larger area, comes in from the
eastwards. Heidleberg is on its north-western
flank, Oakleigh is on its south-eastern, and a
narrow strip leaves the main body near to Kew,
straggles towards Prince's Bridge, and terminates in
the hill upon which Government House stands.
St. Kilda is built upon an oblong hill of Silurian,
which, lying apart, emerges like an island from the
younger marine beds which engirdle it. These latter
superficial Tertiaries stretch from Albert Park to
Frankston, and thence easterly far into Gippsland.
The geology of the metropolis cannot be well
described without some reference to the geological
history of the colony, and, therefore, I will sketch
its broader outlines, illustrating the events as much
as possible by reference to deposits occurring near to
the city.
THE PALEOZOIC.
The earliest glimpse which we get of the past of
what is now known to us as the Colony of Victoria,
reveals the region as an indistinguishable part of an
ocean of moderate depth, with its expanse almost
unbroken, excepting towards Tasmania, by any land.
The floor of this sea was being slowly covered with
deposits of mud, clay, and sand, and to a very
limited extent by limestone.
At this remote period it is probable that the earth's
bulk was shrinking with comparative rapidity, and
as this proceeded the sedimentary beds, which formed
its outermost solid envelope, had in many regions,
of which this was one, to pack their incompressible
materials into a continuously diminishing area. The
tangential thrust thus set up solved the difficulty
by crumpling up the strata, and in parts piling up
the fractured pieces until a sheet, which originally
may have covered a space 200 miles wide, accom-





THE GEOLOGY OF MELBOURNE.
29
modated itself to one of only 130 miles. Strata,
once horizontal, are now to be seen as huge slabs
of stone, packed end on end, and agglutinated
together by pressure, so that they stand side by
side, like the rows of slates in a builder's yard, or
the folded leaves of a closed fan. The tremendous
pressure incidental to this proceeding, combined with
a differential rate of movement of the particles, has
made these rocks more or less schistose, but it has
not been sufficient to effect that more extreme altera-
tion, known as metamorphism, whereby limestone
is converted into marble, and clay into jasper, except
in two limited regions, one lying to the north of
Casterton, and the other in the counties of Bogong
and Benambra.
The waters of this ocean supported various lowly
forms of life, and these have left traces of their
existence in the muds and sands in which they died.
Thus we find graptolites, the fossilised remnants of
a kind of sea-pen; a small crustacean (Hymenocaris
salteri); some cuttle fishes ( Cephalopoda); various
molluscs, and also a seaweed (Spirophyton caudapha-
siani). These fossils have enabled Professor M.Coy
to fix the age of their formation as lower Silurian.
Such deposits as indicate a shore-line, namely, con-
glomerates and breccias, are very rare, being known
to occur only at Spring Plains and Maldon, and in
these places on a small scale. From this circum-
stance it is inferred that the ocean was an open one,
in which the beds referred to marked the limited
shores of islets.
In what direction then are we to look for those land
surfaces, the rain-wash of which supplied the clays and
sands which made up these extensive sea-bottoms ?
We have not the materials which would enable us
to answer this question with any degree of confidence,
but it is significant of an ancient and persistent coast-








THE GEOLOGY OF MELBOURNE.
31
age—the upper Silurian-corresponding to that of
the typical May Hill sandstone. A good section can
be seen in the Moonee Creek Valley, to the west of
Brunswick, where there are exposed beds containing
à plentiful supply of such fossils as Orthoceras
Favosites, Uraster, Lingula, Orthis, Pentamerus, and
various gasteropodous molluscs.
In the railway cutting at South Yarra the beds
yield crustaceans (trilobites), and the rocky outcrop
in Latrobe-street, opposite to the Library, is also
fossiliferous.
Another excellent section is exposed in the deep-
road cutting on the east side of the Johnson-street
bridge, a spot readily accessible by tram. It shows a
sharp anticlinal fold of these old sea-beds.
These Silurians, both upper and lower, contain
the auriferous lodes which have made Victoria
famous. The golden wash-dirt is the hard, heavy,
greatly concentrated residuum of large masses of
these rocks, broken down, triturated, and assorted
out by flowing water, the weightier dropped to the
bottom, the lighter carried to the sea. In these
operations the agent has been the running stream in
one place, and the grinding surf in another; and,
consequently, the wash-dirt of the miner is some-
times an old river bed and sometimes an old sea-
beach. Probably, in nearly every case, the auri-
ferous matrix is of Silurian age; but in most the
materials themselves received their final sifting and
settlement in late Tertiary and Pleistocene times.
Towards the close of the Silurian period, the area
now marked by the Australian Alps began to be
elevated. The sea bed was uparched in a broad fold,
and the plateau thus formed is supposed to have
extended without a break from New Guinea to
Tasmania. As the land emerged the sea waves cut
a flat shelf into the soft sandstones and shales, thus


THE GEOLOGY OF MELBOURNE.
giving to the broken edges of the crumpled strata a
measure of levelness which no agency known to us
could effect, except the horizontal crosscut of marine
erosion.
THE UPPER PALEOZOIC.
The next stage in the development of this region
is this elevatory movement, prolongeduntil all of the
present land surface of Victoria stood at an altitude
considerably greater than it does now; whilst in the
extreme eastern end of Gippsland a range of lofty
and singularly active volcanoes, probably not much
inferior in bulk to the Andes, buried an extensive
locality deep under their ejections. Mr. A. W
Howitt, F.G.S., who discovered their sites, describes
them as being wasted to the very foundations, whilst
percolating mineral waters—for ages hot, though long
cold—have transmuted their layers of tufa and lava
into quartz-porphyries and felspathic agglomerates.
After a long period the land sinks again, and once
more the ocean steals up into the mountain glens,
and converts their re-entering curves into lochs and
bays, and their salient bluffs into capes and promon-
tories. Meanwhile the still active volcanoes load the
encroaching waters with emissions, which fall to the
bottom in muddy clouds.
The region sinks still more—the lochs deepen-
the volcanic fires cool slowly down, and eventually
the craters themselves become silent. With the
progress of these changes the littoral waters grow
clear and habitable to corals and other lime-secreting
animals which cannot live in turbid seas. These
thereupon immigrate and build up calcareous strata
over the now consolidated deposits of igneous origin.
These formations—the igneous lower Devonian
and organic middle Devonian—remain now only in
small isolated patches in the extreme south-east








THE GEOLOGY OF MELBOURNE.
33
quarter of the colony. To what further extent they
may also have once overspread other parts we have
no means of knowing.
The limestone contains corals and molluscs, and
also the remains of an interesting and nearly extinct
group of fishes, representatives of which Hugh Miller
first unearthed in the Old Red Sandstone of Cromarty
Bay. These ganoid fishes, distantly represented to-
day by the gar-pike and the sturgeon, had their
bodies plated with bony armour, often bright with
shining enamel and quaint with natural device-
star-like rays, knobs like the nail-heads on a castle
door, and fluted lines.
It is noteworthy that between the last of the beds
of this system-the middle Devonian-and the first
of the next one-the upper Devonian-there is the
same marked unconformability that has been noted
between the same two parts of the system in Great
Britain. We can confidently infer that between
them there was a period during which the region was
elevated and eroded.
To this condition of things another era of greater
depression followed, and the downward movement
continued until more than 5000 feet deep of water
and sea silt overlay the lowlands. Nevertheless the
Dividing Range was then so lofty that its peaks, or
broad table-lands, still towered far above the waves.
But ages of weathering stripped them of such
quantities of debris, that when this was river-born
into the sea, the accumulation upon the sea bottom
measured thousands of feet in depth over large
portions of what are now the lowlands of Victoria.
Of this great deposit only two vestiges remain.
One of these extends from near Bairnsdale to Mans-
field, and was accumulated in what was a long
trough between two mountain spurs. It represents
the silt of another deep sea-loch. The uppermost


34
THE GEOLOGY OF MELBOURNE.
beds of those that have outlived the weathering of
the long period which has elapsed since their eleva-
tion are still 5300ft. above the sea level. In some
of them Mr. G. Sweet has recently discovered near
Mansfield a rich deposit of the ganoid fishes, before
referred to, also the tattered and frayed leaves of
cycads and ferns, these last doubtless having been
washed into the sea by the rivulets which must have
entered the bayon every side, after draining the
steep mountains which overlooked its waters.
The highest and youngest beds of this series are
found on the course of the Avon, and they contain
tree trunks, which have been identified as the scaley-
barked lepidodendron, a fossil which enables Pro-
fessor M'Coy to determine the deposit as a passage-
bed between the Devonian and the Carboniferous.
The other deposit of this age, above referred to,
constitutes the Grampians. They are built up of
2000ft. of massive false-bedded sandstones, as
hitherto found, barren of fossils, resting unconform-
ably upon older rocks. The component material is
ground much finer than that of the Mansfield basin,
from which it is inferred that it is a deep sea-travelled
deposit, whilst the conglomerates and breccias of the
latter remain close to the cliff-edge wlience they were
derived.
With the Avon lepidodendron beds we leave the
Devonian, and pass over the threshold of the Car-
boniferous epoch, but at this point, when we might
expect to encounter coal-bearing beds, we seek for
them in vain. At this stage in our history we ex-
perience a blank. Coal beds have either never been
formed in this area at this period, or, having been
formed, have subsequently been entirely removed.
Mr. Murray expresses the opinion that there was a
see-sawing movement of the surface of south-eastern
Australia, as a result of which Victoria was upraised





36
THE GEOLOGY OF MELBOURNE.
wide, and shallow trough was eroded across the
southern portion of the colony between the main
watershed and the present coast line, and rudely
parallel with them. The axis of this depression
passed across the sites of Casterton, Warrnambool,
the Barabools, Portarlington, Mordialloc, Buln Buln,
Sale, and Bairnsdale.
With the incoming of the Mezozoic this valley
was occupied in its deeper parts by sheets of fresh
water, into which numerous rapid streams brought
immense quantities of sand and pebbles and vege-
table debris, so that eventually it became filled up
to a depth of at least 2500ft. with beds of a lacus-
trine character-conglomerates around the margins,
and sandstones and shales where the waters deepened.
Between many of the sandy layers there is an
abundance of the compressed carbonised remains of
land or aquatic plants. These in places amount to
coal seams. In the Otway district they are almost
always very thin. About Cape Patterson they are
thicker, but the district having been greatly faulted,
the value of tbe seams is much impaired. In the
basin which lies between Anderson's Inlet and the
Latrobe Valley there are seams now being opened
up which promise to be of excellent quality, and
in one or two instances as much as 5ft. thick.
Only two forms of animal life have been discovered
as yet in these extensive deposits, both being those
of fresh-water shell-fish (unio).
It appears to be likely that during this period the
elevatory movement, before referred to, united Victoria
to Tasmania, and added to both a tongue of land which
projected—there are reasons for believing as much as
700 miles further into the Southern Ocean. By this
movement the Victorian localities, just described as
occupied with lacustrine deposits, instead of being at
or about sea-level, were considerably above it. They








THE GEOLOGY OF MELBOURNE.
37
were, in short, a series of lakes situated upon a great
table-land, upon which they shifted their beds from
point to point as the hollows silted up. There must
have been a very abundant rainfall during this
period, as fresh-water lake deposits of this age abound
over many parts of Australia. They are extensively
developed in Tasmania, and the chief point of differ-
ence between these and our own is that the coal
seams of the former are both more numerous and
much thicker, on the average, than those found on
this side.
One of our lakes extended northwards to Bacchus
Marsh, and its bed appears to be one of the oldest of
the series. Mr. Wilkinson considers that it is the
equivalent here of the Hawkesbury sandstone-
another lacustrine deposit-and of the Trias of
Europe. The beds of the Wannon, the Otway, and
the Gippsland Ranges, are of a rather late date,
having been assigned to the Jurassic.
Although the site of Melbourne was, in all pro-
bability, covered with an extension of these lake-
beds, not a vestige of their remains can be seen, and
the only part of the metropolitan area in which they
could now be, is buried deep under the Tertiaries upon
which Williamstown is built.
During this period a wide, shallow sea parted
eastern and western Australia, and eventually on
this sea-bottom, as it became elevated, brackish and
then fresh-water beds of cretaceous age were accumu-
lated. These have yielded to the collector ammonites,
and belemnites, and archaic lizards, turtles and
saurians. Their porous beds are to-day, under
geological direction, yielding up stores of water to
the artesian tube.
To return to our own colony, a lapse of time saw
this great valley filled to its brim with sand and silt;
the lakes are changed into flat, wide, high, alluvial


38
THE GEOLOGY OF MELBOURNE.
plains, and the same streams that provided the
materials for their beds, eventually cut gulleys,
cañons, and valleys through them, thus in time
impressing a new and different contour upon the
country.
In all the irregularities thus carved in the
Mezozoic lake bottoms, the beds of the next period
were to be deposited,
THE TERTIARY PERIOD.
With this epoch all the lower lands again dis-
appear under water. A rugged indented peninsula
represents the mainland. Off its coasts are islands,
the sites of which are to-day known as various
mountains:—The Otway Ranges and the Grampians;
the weird sandstone crags of Arapiles, and the granite
peaks of Wilson's Promontory, and of the You
Yangs. The Dandenongs, a worn-down remnant of
a Paleozoic volcano, form a bluff promontory, standing
out into the sea. The ocean flows freely up the
Murray plains, passing beyond Wodonga, and
branching up the Goulburn, the Ovens, and many
another of the valleys which flank the northern
slope of the divide. At the same time it submerges
most of Southern Gippsland.
The only relics of the earlier—the Oligocene-part
of this period are certain scanty patches of fossili-
ferous sandy clays with septarian nodules, found in
several distantly separated localities—Muddy Creek,
near to Hamilton; on the south-west flank of the
Otway coast ranges; in the vale of Bacchus Marsh;
and also low down in the face of some of the cliffs
of that part of Port Phillip Bay which lies between
Frankston and Schnapper Point. Deposits of the
next succeeding age, the Miocene, are much more
widely spread. They underlie most of the plains








THE GEOLOGY OF MELBOURNE.
.
39
between the Murray and the mountains, and the
mountains and the sea. Cliffs of chalk, snowy
white as those of Albion itself, though not as boldly
high, overlook the head of Portland Bay. They are
built up of the hard parts of minute deep-sea
animals; the shells of globerigina and orbulina, the
siliceous spicules of sea urchins; of branches of
coral, and nodules of flint. Beds of this age, of
very similar composition, form the cliffs of the Lower
Murray, of the Otway coast, and of the north-west
coast of Tasmania. Concealed by younger forma-
tions, they pass under the southern end of Port
Phillip Bay, and under the Werribee Plains. They
are found at Bacchus March, and they touch Flem-
ington. Mount Mary, a small volcanic cone, between
Melbourne and the You Yangs, has in its sloping
strata masses of rock which are replete with Miocene
marine fossils. These have been derived from old
sea beds lying far beneath their present position.
The vent of the volcano passed through these, and
during the explosions masses were torn out and
hurled more or less vertically, so that they fell back
close to the crater, and, rolling down the slopes,
came to rest where they now lie.
A depth of some 700ft. of water covered the site
of Melbourne during some portion of this period.
Before the sea had quite retired, volcanic eruptions
took place upon a large scale. The valleys of the
Yarra, the Moorabool, the Leigh, and of numerous
other streams were filled with laya and ashes, and
in some parts these deposits are still hundreds of
feet in depth.
At last the sea retreats, and with this change
the emergent surfaces are again subjected to the
denuding action of the atmosphere. About this
time, or perhaps a little later, a great change
began to come over the climate ; the rainfall


40
THE GEOLOGY OF MELBOURNE. '
increased exceedingly, and was associated with a
lower temperature. Frost did its disintegrating work
upon the uplands, and the rain-wash swept the
loosened debris into the streams. In consequence
of these conditions the erosion of the higher levels
and the accumulation upon the lower ones was
excessive.
Most of the deposits of Miocene age, whether
aqueous or igneous were swept back into the Pliocene
sea to form beds of that age. For scores of miles up
the Yarra shreds and patches of Miocene lava over
remnants of Miocene gravels and sands attest at once
the great extent of the original lava flow, and the
severity of the scour which subsequently removed it so
completely. Emerald Hill, Batman's Hill, and North
Melbourne Hill are all portions of an ancient estuarine
deposit of the Yarra, which have been preserved solely
by the old basaltic rock which sealed them up. The
lava of the Kangaroo ground (a locality just without
the suburban radius) is another well-known deposit,
dating from the same time.
In the wake of the receding ocean there followed
fresh-water or brackish lakes, and the abundant
storm waters of this rainy period swept down into
these shallow sheets great quantities of vegetable
debris. These deposits, alternated with layers of
sand or clay, and the organic matter being thus pro-
tected against active oxydisation, fermented slowly,
and formed the thin seams of lignite which lie
beneath Williamstown, and the great beds of brown
coal which have recently been discovered at
Mirboo.
After another time-lapse of considerable length the
land again sinks, and this time to a greater depth
than the last, the data available showing that the
metropolitan area must have been quite 1000ft.
beneath the waves. As a result the coast line








THE GEOLOGY OF MELBOURNE.
41
HD
hugged the mountains nearer than ever, and the
land-surface shrank immensely, until all that was to
be seen of Victoria was a rugged Morea-shaped
peninsula, and the highest ridges of the New South
Wales Cordillera, still peeping above the waters,
formed the stem to which this area was articulated.
During this immersion the mountains were much
loftier than those which stand upon the same founda-
tions to-day, and the abundant streams which de-
scended from their peaks discharged into the sea
vast quantities of sediment which, settling down
upon what are now the lower hills, the higher
valleys, and the plains of Victoria, filled them and
levelled and obliterated their inequalities with suc-
cessive beds of gravel, boulders, sand, and clay.
When afterwards the ocean retired for the last time,
the land-surface around Melbourne must have pre-
sented a contour which was very different to that
which it now has, for not a rock of Paleozoic age
could have been visible. The sediments just referred
to overlaid and concealed every previous land mark,
and long-continued erosion was necessary to excavate
and reveal the ancient features. But as the land
rose the soft sea-beds dissolved into mud and dis-
appeared. On the north and east of Melbourne, at
the Royal Park, the Eastern Hill, the higher parts
of St. Kilda, South Yarra, Toorak, Malyern, Haw-
thorn, and Kew, the old Silurian land surface has
been relieved of its covering, and exposed once
again to daylight. But the environs which lie to
the west of the lower Yarra—that is, those which
still stand but little above sea-level, have been less
eroded, and still carry much of their Pliocene load-
ing. Beneath the basalt and the alluviums of
Williamstown and the Werribee Plains, of Yarra
bank and the West Melbourne swamp, and far
below the sea-level there lies masked and buried an
HLAH


42
THE GEOLOGY OF MELBOURNE.
ancient land surface of Silurian rocks, in continua-
tion of and corresponding to that which appears
across the river. If the present elevatory movement
lasts long enough atmospheric agencies and the sea
will, between them, remove these comparatively
recent encrustations. The thickness of sediment
that has been removed from the higher localities
may be inferred when we take notice of how much
remains upon the lower. Near Williamstown a bore
has been put down 300ft. through alternating beds
of sand and clay, lava and shelly limestone, lignite
and gravel, without ever reaching the Silurian. At
Mentone the boring rod went through marine beds,
often rich in fossils, for 600ft.; at Portarlington for
1500ft., and at Winchelsea for 2100ft. With respect
to some of these, however, it must be remembered
that a portion of the lowermost deposits will date
back to the Miocene and Eocene, and even to the
Mezozoic. The wide extension of these submergent
conditions in the Pliocene is noteworthy. Across the
Straits in Tasmania we find at Longford, in the old
lake-beds which filled the Mersey valley, 900ft. of
alluvium; and north of us, in Riverina, deep accumu-
lations of sand, silt, and gravel have levelled up out
of recognition the hills and dales which existed
early in the Tertiary epoch.
As the sea retired from the mountains the coast
line expanded, and the watercourses lengthened
their beds by advancing their mouths over the
reclaimed sands. As a result of this operation, the
estuarine deposits of one period become the meadow-
land of the next, and everywhere round Victoria,
over its lowlands, fluviatile beds succeed to marine
ones.
Towards the close of this period another great
outburst of volcanic activity occurred, and before it
died out wide areas on the west side of the colony








44
THE GEOLOGY OF MELBOURNE.
perished or deteriorated. The saurians left our
rivers for ever; the gigantic kangaroos, wombats,
and native bears were replaced by smaller forms,
and many species became extinct. During the
Miocene the prevailing flora was characterised by
plants belonging to the laurel family, whilst forests
of oak, elm, beech, and araucarias were plentiful.
These had disappeared by the beginning of the
Pleistocene, when the eucalyptus took their place.
This family of trees came to us last from Western
Australia, then almost a separate land dominating
the southern part of the Indian Ocean, but cut
off by torrid deserts and shallow seas from
Eastern Australia. With the completion of
these changes, physical and biological, Victoria
attained to its present geographical form and
features. Minor oscillations have since loaded
its margins with thin beds of Post-pliocene sands;
the mountains have been lowered by denudation,
the rivers have cut their channels deeper. With
the evaporation of the Central Australian lakes the
climate has grown dry and hot; but no other altera-
tions of moment have occurred, unless we refer to
the arrival of man on the scene.
This, then, is the story of Victoria's development,
in meagre outline, as the facts have been deciphered
by the labours of Selwyn and M'Coy; of Wilkinson,
Howitt, and Murray, and their colleagues ; and as
delineated on our geological maps by Couchman.


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--
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-
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-
- -
-
-


THE
ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA.
BY LORIMER Fison, M.A.,
Honorary Member of the Anthropological Institute of Great
Britain, Honorary Member of the Anthropological Society
of Washington, dc.
A few years hence an account of the Victorian
aborigines may be written on the lines of the cele-
brated chapter on the Snakes of Iceland :-" There
are no aborigines in Victoria.” Before the incoming
of the white man the native tribes roamed through
the forest in considerable numbers, but contact with
what we are pleased to call “our civilisation" has
improved them off the face of the earth, with the
exception of a miserable remnant gathered together
at the various stations established by the Govern-
ment and the missions.
It is needless to recapitulate the well-known causes
of their decay and disappearance; but it may be well
to point out that, among those causes, cannot be set
down the lessening of their food supply. On the
contrary, it is certain that in many respects the
supply was considerably increased by the incoming
of the white man. Though the introduction of
sheep and cattle destroyed, to a considerable extent,
certain vegetable products which they consumed, the
war of extermination waged by the settlers, for the
preservation of their flocks, against predatory birds
and beasts, such as the eaglehawk and the wild dog,
caused a rapid and enormous increase in the game
upon which the blacks principally subsisted-
opossums, kangaroos, &c.—at all events, until
those animals began to be extensively hunted for
their skins; and on the whole it may be said that
the blackfellow had more to eat, and less trouble in


46
THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA.
getting at it, after the white man had made bis
appearance, than he had before that advent.
In a brief article such as this, it is, of course,
impossible to give anything like a detailed account
of the aborigines. It will be sufficient to point out
the organisation of the Victorian tribes, together
with certain specialities which, more or less, distin-
guished them from the aborigines in other parts of
the Australian continent. It is necessary to state
here that I am making use of information diligently
collected by my friend and fellow-worker, Mr. A.
W. Howitt, whose name ought to be at the head of
this article rather than my own. For the accom-
panying sketch map I am indebted to Miss M. E. B.
Howitt.
The Nations.
The Victorian Aborigines were divided into at
least four distinct “nations,” using this term for
the sake of convenience, in order to permit the use
of “ tribe ” as a distinctive sub-term. These nations
were :-
1. The Kurnai of Gippsland.
2. The Kulin, who occupied the country from the
Tarwin River, in Westernport, round the spurs of
the Australian Alps ; north-eastward to beyond
the Broken River, and, probably, as far as Wanga-
ratta ; south-westward to a little beyond Geelong;
and north-westward beyond Daylesford.
3. The Wotjo.-From the Kulin boundary to the
north and west there was a great group of tribes,
whom we may call the Wotjo, and whose country
extended nearly to the Murray frontage.
4. The Mara.-To the southward of the Wotio.
extending to the sea, and into South Australia, there
was another group of tribes, to which we can apply
the name of Mara.


---





48
THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA.
apparent from the following table, showing the
divisions of the Kulin, as far as Mr. Howitt has
been able to ascertain them. The Kulin had descent
through the father, and, therefore, the word clan is
used for their local sub-divisions.
THE KULIN Nation.
TRIBE.
PRINCIPAL CLAN.
CLASS OR
PRIMARY
SOCIAL
DIVISION,
HEADQUARTERS,
99
Yalukit'
Waa
1. Bunwurung Not ascertained Bunjil Mordialloc
Bunjil Cape Schank
St. Kilda
Not ascertained Bunjil Sandridge
2. Woiwurung Urundjeri
Waa
Kew
Buluk
Waa Cranbourne
Ngaruk
Bunjil Dandenong
Kurunjang Bunjil Werribee
Gunung
Bunjil Mt. Macedon
3. Thargunwurung Nira
Waa Kilmore
Buthera
Bunjil Seymour
Yawung
Waa Alexandra
Waring
Bunjil Muddy Creek
Yirun
Bunjil Benalla
Jajauwurung
Kurnung Waa Daylesford
Galgal
Bunjil Kyneton
Learga
Waa (?) | Sources of
Campaspe
Kalk-kalk Waa (?) N.W.of Kyne-
ton
Wuringhera Waa (?) Near Galgal
clan
Tonemburlang Waa (?) | Upper Loddon
Leauragura Bunjil Smeaton
Kri
| Bunjil Mt.Blackwood
5. Not ascertained Bulungkara Bunjil Wangaratta
6. Wudthawurung Wudthawurung Bunjil | Geelong
Not ascer-
7. Nguraiwurung Ngurailum tained Murchison
Benbendora | Bunjil | Mooroopna


མ།
–
–
-
'མ་ བ
བཀན་


THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA.
SOCIAL ORGANISATION.
With the exception of the Gippsland Kurnai, all
the Victorian blacks divided into the two great
exogamous Classes which are found everywhere
throughout the continent, and these sub-divided
into minor totems, * as well as into local Hordes.
The classes themselves were major totems.
The Kulin classes were Bunjil (eaglehawk) and
Waa (crow); those of the Mara were Gamutch and
Krokitch (identical with the South Australian
Kumait and Kroki). All these have been established
beyond doubt by Mr. Howitt as the equivalents of
Kilpara and Mukwara of the Darling district; of
Dilbi and Kupathin, the two primary classes of the
Kamilaroi, which sub-divide into Ipai, Kumbo,
Muri, Kubai; and of the Queensland Mallera and
Wuthera, which also split into four sub-classes.
These four sub-classes, with their peculiar line of
descent, were not found in Victoria, unless possibly
along the Murray frontage to the north of the Kulin.
The Kurnai had not the two primary divisions,
though there is evidence that they had them in former
times. All their males were Yirung (emu-wren),
and all their females were Djitgun (superb warbler).
It may be noted that these male and female totems
extend among tribes far to the northward, along the
east coast, and are additional to those indicating the
various social divisions. They are found also in
the other Victorian nations.
KURNAI AND BRAJERAK.
Kulin and Kurnai are almost certainly the same
word, found elsewhere as Kurn, Kurna, Korna, and
signifying “man.” Each of the nations called
* The word totem is conveniently used for the division of which the
totem is the badge, as well as for the badge itself.








THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA.
51
themselves MEN par excellence, thus distinguishing
themselves from all the rest, whom they reprobated
by some title which had in it an undertone of
contempt, and hatred, and fear. Thus the Gipps-
land blacks were Kurnai-Men-and all the others
were no better than Brajerak--mere barbaroi. It
was a meritorious act to wipe them out of existence
whenever an opportunity offered, and they left no
opportunity unimproved. This, however, must be
distinguished from their combats among them-
selves—the set fights which have been so often
described as war. These were nothing more than
the battle ordeal, the purgation of an offence, real or
imaginary, against the tribal laws and rights.
SPECIALITIES OF THE VICTORIAN TRIBES.
It is needless, as well as impossible, to attempt
any general account of the natives in a sketch so
slight as this; impossible, because of the limits of
our space, and needless, because there is no particu-
larly noteworthy difference between the Victorian
and other Australian tribes in physique, weapons,
and articles of manufacture, or in their general
modes of life. Variations there are, of course ; but
in all probability the Victorian blacks do not differ
from the other tribes much more than they differ
from one another.
For instance, they were cannibals, as are the
tribes elsewhere, but they did not eat the entire
body of their enemies, nor consume their dead
friends, in whole or in part, as a touching funeral
ceremony, or as a means of assuaging their poignant
grief, after the manner of some of the northern
tribes. They ate the skin, the muscular portions of
the legs, or the arms of their enemies, or drank their


ཆེ།
/
_
-
བ ་
ལ་
ལ


_
_


THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA.
53
and son are of different totems. The totem-group,
in fact, bears to the horde the relation which the
Attic phratria bore to the deme. *
But, among the Kulin, though the wife of a Waa
man was Bunjil, his child was Waa, like himself.
Thus, the Urundjeri people, for instance, were all Waa,
while the Ngaruk were all Bunjil, the wives, of course,
being excepted.
INDIVIDUAL PROPERTY Right.
This change has also resulted in a tendency to
break up to some considerable extent the old com-
munism, and to individualise property, at all events
where property can be localised. The game which
roams over the tribal territory is still the common
property of the tribe—its property, indeed, consists in
the game on the territory rather than in the territory
itself—but, as for instance, in the case of the swans'
eggs in the breeding places on Lake Kurlip, a lagoon
formed by the Snowy River, and at Raymond Island
in Lake King, we find certain individuals asserting
a proprietary right to the exclusion of the rest of the
community. Another striking instance of this was
found in the Woiwurung tribe, where a famous
quarry, from which stone axes were obtained, was
claimed as the property of a family whose headman
was one Bilibeleri. It is interesting to note, as a
survival of the older line of descent, that whenever
this property holder went away on a visit, he left
the quarry in charge of his sister's son.
EXCLUSIVE MARITAL Right.
Still more clearly is this tendency seen in the
marriage regulations, which give the husband an
* See The Deme and the Horde, by Howitt and Fison, Journal of
Anthrop. Inst., Nov. 1884.



147
148
150
HU CHWALES
350
Ovens R
37
Snovy
Howe
Gippsland Lakes
Korner Inlet
VWilsons Promontory
TRAIT
M. JORJA
Spectator Pul.C Melbourne
Prevalence of
Father-light





THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA.
55
survivals of it are to be observed among them. The
one exception is the Gippsland Kurnai, among
whom the ceremony was called the Jeraeil. Their
Jeraeil rites, however, were far from being as full as
those of the northern tribes, and the custom of
knocking out one of the novice's upper incisors, was
not practised by them.*
My friend, Mr. Howitt, who, having been claimed
by the Yantruwunta, of Cooper's Creek, as a defunct
Lizard come to life again, is looked up to with awe
as a great Past Master of the Mysteries, sent round
the sacred tundun (bull-roarer) some years ago, and
the remnant of the Kurnai gathered at his call, and
performed the ceremony in his presence. A most
interesting account of it from his pen, and another
of the Kuringal (Initiation) of the Murring, the New
South Wales neighbours of the Kurnai, who also
performed their initiation ceremonies at his bidding,
may be found in the Journal of the Anthropological
Institute for 1885.
*The tribes who formerly lived on the Murray frontage may possibly
have observed the ceremony, for individuals belonging to them are
known to have participated in the Burbung ceremonies of the Tatathi
and other tribes in the neighbourhood of the river on the New South
Wales side.


ZOOLOGY: VERTEBRATA.
By A. H. S. Lucas, M.A., B.Sc.
INTRODUCTION.
The Vertebrate Fauna of Victoria is not markedly
distinct from that of the rest of Australia. The
colony is not separated from New South Wales and
South Australia by impassable or even difficult
barriers. The actual boundary line between Victoria
and New South Wales, from the sources of the
Murray to Cape Howe, and that between Victoria
and South Australia, from the Murray to the coast
along the 141st meridian, are purely artificial, and
do not coincide with any natural physical lines of
demarcation. The great drainage area of the Murray
and its tributaries forms but one natural region, and
animals which have passed the Darling at Bourke
can easily cross the Murray at Echuca. We thus
possess a number of forms which are characteristic
of the more inland country, and are visited
occasionally by other forms which we can scarcely
claim as permanent denizens of the colony.
The Great Dividing Range has proved a more
serious obstacle to the migration of species, partly
from the height of the mountains and breadth of the
chain, and partly from the modifications which are
thereby occasioned in the climate of the more
southern portion of Victoria. It thus comes about
that north and south Victoria show greater differ-
ences in their assemblages of species than are met
with on the two sides of the Murray.








ZOOLOGY: VERTEBRATA.
57
The Tasmanian Fauna again is conspicuously dis-
tinguished by the presence of the Tasmanian wolf
and the Tasmanian devil, but in many other respects
shows a close connection with the Fauna of southern
Victoria, often a closer connection than subsists
between the forms on the north and on the south
side of the Dividing Range.
MAMMALIA.
Of the higher, placental, orders of mammalia, we
possess representatives of the Bats, Rodents, Car-
nivora, and Cetacea, while certain species of *deer
have become fairly established.
Insectivorous bats appear to be plentifully dis-
tributed, but the species do not seem to have been
determined, with the exception of Molossus australis.
In Gippsland the great fruit-eating bats, the so-
called flying floxes, Pteropus poliocephalus, abound, and
with the planting of orchards and gardens they should
be much better provided for than when in the old
days they depended on the fruits of the scrub-forest.
Thanks to their fecundity, the rodents are now
paramount amongst the feral mammalia. In the
Western District the rabbits have indeed threatened
some of the squatters with extinction. “In fact,
you see them everywhere, black, white, red, and the
common grey ones.” At Colac advantage was taken
of their abundance to establish a factory for tinned
rabbits. Slight changes in their habits have been
noted. They are said to swim across streams, and to
associate, in their burrows, with cats. The pro-
duction of hybrids between cat and rabbit, however,
rests upon very insufficient evidence. The rabbits
furnish valuable supplies of food to the native eagles
and hawks. Around Melbourne they are not much
of a nuisance, and furnish mild sport for the
*Especially the Sambur deer of Ceylon.


58
ZOOLOGY: VERTEBRATA.
metropolitan sportsmen. The hare has been very
successfully introduced by the Acclimatisation
Society; the animals have multiplied so freely that
a close season is no longer necessary or enforced,
and the price of a hare in Melbourne is just about
half the price in London.
In Victoria we have examples of water-rats, long-
eared rats, short-eared rats, and mice. The beau-
tiful golden-bellied beaver rat, Hydromys chrysogaster,
has been found, though sparingly, in the Goulburn,
and other of our streams. European water-rats
have taken possession of the banks of the Lower
Yarra. From virgin streams we have records of
the dusky-footed water-rat, Mus fuscipes. Our long-
eared rats include the pretty little species of Hapa-
lotis, H. albipes, H. Mitchelli, and H. conditor, all
found in the Murray province. Of the short-eared
rats, we have Mus nova-hollandia, and others. But
work remains to be done to determine with precision
the various species of our indigenous and introduced
rats and mice. The foreign species swarm in the
towns, and bid fair to carry the boycott of the native
forms to the extent of extermination.
The Carnivora proper consist of the dingo, or
native dog, and two species of seals, and, we may
add, the fox. The dingo is to be found in all parts
of the colony where the conditions are favourable,
where slieep are ready to hand, and where the
country furnishes dense enough cover. They are
abundant in the Mallee scrub of the Wimmera, and
are a source of great annoyance to the Gippsland
farmers. Foxes have spread from the Werribee
centre, and are often known by their attacks on
poultry as far as Camperdown in the west and
Christmas Hills on the north.
Seals were, in the early days of Australasian
settlement, very abundant on the shores and on the





2
、了
​,


ZOOLOGY : VERTEBRATA.
59
islands of Bass's Straits. Such names as Sealer's
Cove, in Wilson's Promontory, and Seal Island, which
was given to an island near to Phillip Island, and
also to another off the east coast of Wilson's Promon-
tory, attest the abundance of these creatures in
former times. Doubtless, any of the forms which
lived on the islands would be driven now and again
by storms and currents to our shores. But it is
difficult nowadays to make sure of some of the
species which have now quite disappeared from our
seas. Péron described the earless seal, Phoca
proboscidia, as living in great numbers on King
Island, where he stayed for a time. This huge
animal, 20 to 30 feet long, with its singularly long
snout, sufficiently resembled the elephant for the
name, Bay of the Elephants, to be given to the
harbour they most frequented, and of which Péron
gives a very interesting view in his Voyage. Gould
speaks of the cowled seal, Arctocephalus lobatus, taken
at Houtman's Abrolhos, and Rivoli Bay, South
Australia, as being also probably one of the Bass's
Straits seals. However, the only strange visitant
from more southern seas, of which we have secured
specimens for the National Museum, is the eared
Stenorhyncus leptonyx, a rather large animal, reach-
ing 10ft. in length. Professor M.Coy describes it as
a most voracious devourer of fish, and occasionally
of marine birds. And but one seal is left as a
resident on our rocky shores, as also on those of the
islands of the Straits, the eared sea-bear, Euotaria
cinerea. This was first described by Quoy and
Gaimard from animals they obtained in Western
Port, though the distinctiveness of the species had
been pointed out previously by Péron. In the
“ Decades ” Professor M‘Coy gives Trooper Ardill's
account of the habitat and habits of the sea-bear,
as observed by him, still (as now) occupying the


60
ZOOLOGY: VERTEBRATA.
quarters it occupied at the time of the visit of Quoy
and Gaimard. Excellent specimens can be seen in
the National Museum, obtained from the Seal Island,
off the Nobbies, Phillip Island.
Of the Cetacea we can fairly claim but one per-
manent species, the yellow-sided dolphin, Delphinus
nora-zealandia, which can be seen tumbling in
tumultuous motion in Port Phillip, as in the waters
off the south coast. Almost any of the southern
whales might be stranded on our shores. Professor
M•Coy secured, for the Museum, the skeleton of a
magnificent specimen, 90 feet long, which was
stranded at Jan Juc, outside Port Phillip Heads, in
August, 1867. His energy and labour lave been
expended fruitlessly, for the colony has been unable
to provide a shed for the protection of this valuable
skeleton from the action of the weather, and
members of the Association will, no doubt, be
astonished at even its present state of preservation,
after 22 years of “ all this rain-water out of doors."
Another specimen of this whale, Physalus grayi,
M'Coy, came ashore near Geelong. Another whale-
bone whale, Balana australis, taken in Portland, has
furnished a skeleton to the Museum.
There are examples in Victoria of most of the
families of marsupials. Of the Dasyuridæ we have
several species of Phascogale, P. penicillata (found
more or less all over the colony), P. lanigera, and P.
calura (both from the Murray); and of Antechinus, A.
flaripes, d. albipes, A. swainsoni, and A. leucopus; and
the three species of Dasyurus—D. viverrinus, the
native cat, D. maculatus, the tiger cat, and D.
geoffroyi. Of the cats the last is the rarest. The
native cat is found to be still destructive of the eggs
and young poultry of farmers just beyond the suburbs
of Melbourne; and, indeed, the great persistence of
the species may be judged from the fact that living








ZOOLOGY : VERTEBRATA.
61
specimens are occasionally met with in the Univer-
sity grounds. As the common sparrow extends
itself, the birds, with their easily accessible nests,
should furnish a new and handy supply of food to
the native cats.
The common bandicoot, Perameles nasuta, is also
well established, and not easily disturbed by the new
conditions of advancing civilisation, and burrows for
potatoes with as much zest as it ever showed for
native roots. Dr. Bennett says that the bandicoots
themselves are excellent eating, which may prove to
be a compensation to the selector: I have seen them
as near to Melbourne as Malvern. Boys hunt them
with terriers. Some other species, P. obesula, P.
gunnii, P. fasciata, have been recorded, the two
former being pretty common, and another Peramelid,
Cheropus castanotis, in the Murray district.
We have several species of Phalangistidæ. The
native bear, Phascolarctus cinereus, is still in the
Gippsland forests, in spite of the large numbers shot
for their skins, and the still larger number shot out
of pure mischief. More easy, harmless, unresisting
game never presented itself to the unskilled sports-
man; and a man who can go and shoot bears for
the fun of it, should feel at home with a gun among
a flock of sheep. A white variety is obtained now
and then. We have also several kinds of the fur-
bearing, leaf-feeding “ opossums.” The short-eared
opossum, Phalangista canina, is characteristic of the
higher country, while the common opossum, P.
vulpina, is characteristic of the lowlands. The ring-
tail, P. viverrina, is pretty generally distributed. A
yellow-furred Mallee opossum replaces P. canina in
the Mallee scrub. Specimens of Dromicia gliriformis,
Dormouse Phalanger, are preserved in the National
Museum from Mordialloc and Muckleford. Mr. D.
Le Souef informs me that it is occasionally met


62
ZOOLOGY: VERTEBRATA.
with in South Victoria, that he obtained one at Gem-
brook four years ago. Several of the arboreal
forms, which possess membranous patagia, or expan-
sions of the skin of the sides, to enable them to
make short flights from branch to branch, are found
in Victoria. The largest and most abundant is the
great flying opossum, or flying squirrel, Petaurista
taguanoides, found in all the forests to the east and
north-east of the colony. Mr. Tisdall saw hundreds
of them at Templestowe some twenty-five years ago.
We have also Belideus australis, B. breviceps, and
B. notatus. Professor M.Coy has described a peculiar
form from the Bass River, South Gippsland, which
he has designated Gymnobelideus leadbeateri. In the
scrub, also, scarcely rare, but difficult to observe and
to obtain, is the charming little opossum mouse,
Acrobates pygmaus, the smallest of our marsupials.
The wombat, Phascolomys platyrhinus, can still be
obtained in the less frequented parts of Gippsland.
It is perfectly incapable of maintaining its hold on a
district in the presence of civilised man, and when
one comes across its burrows, it is but rarely that
they are found to be tenanted. Both black and
grey varieties have been found all over Victoria in
the timbered mountainous districts.
We have, or have had, several kinds of kangaroo
and wallaby. Before man, with his sheep, dog, and
gun, they are each year driven further into the
scrub, and deeper into the forest. The great grey,
or old-man kangaroo, Macropus major, has been
hunted all too successfully from the Gippsland
Lakes to the South Australian border, from the
Goulburn River to the Mallee. He is still to be met
with in considerable numbers in the neighbourhood
of Casterton, and also near Rosedale. From Lake
Albacutya and the surrounding country the black-
faced kangaroos can be obtained, M1. melanops. This





ZOOLOGY : VERTEBRATA.
63
is considered a distinct species by Gould, but not by
Waterhouse. Specimens of the so-called sooty
variety of the old-man, M. fuliginosus, have been
procured for the Victorian National Museum from
the junction of the Murray and the Darling. As
similar visitors from the central plains the Museum
possesses examples of the pretty little bridled
kangaroos, Onychogale franatus, and its ally,
0. lunatus. Mr. Le Souef reports that the former
are fairly numerous in the Mallee country to the
north-west of the colony, and are there known as
Pademelon. Near Swan Hill captures have been
made of the South Australian red kangaroo,
Osphranter rufus; and at Mount Hope of the hare
kangaroo, Lagorchestes leporoides. Amongst the
scrub of the southern lowlands the little red-bellied,
or stump-tailed wallaby, Halmaturus billardieri, is
common, while in the more wooded and less access-
ible spurs of Cape Otway, Wilson's Promontory, and
Gippsland, the much larger and darker brush-
tailed wallaby, H. ualabatus, is often disturbed by
the bushman. Gould records the red-necked
wallaby, H. ruficollis, from the Port Phillip district.
The Tasmanian wallaby, H. bennettii, is generally
considered as a variety of this species, and this form
is also found, though infrequently, in Gippsland. It
is not improbable that the brush-tailed rock wallaby,
Petrogale penicillatus, may be discovered in the rocky
fastnesses of the Grampians. The Victorian
kangaroo rat is Bettongia cuniculus. Our definitely
Victorian Macropidæ include then this Bettongia,
Macropus major, M. melanops, Onychogale franatus,
Halmaturus billardieri, and H. walabatus.
Victoria boasts the possession of both genera of
monotremes. The echidna, Echidna hystrix, has
nearly the whole colony for its habitat, burrowing
alike in the Murray Plains, in Gippsland, and,


64
ZOOLOGY: VERTEBRATA.
though now more rarely, in the Melbourne district.
It is most plentiful in the Eastern counties.
The hairy Tasmanian variety, E: setosa, while the
only kind met with in King Island, is not found in
Victoria. Like the English hedge-hog, the echidna
will probably persist, from lack of rivals in its pecu-
liar mode of life. The platypus, Ornithorhyncus
paradoxus, is still pretty plentiful in the quiet reaches
of undisturbed streams. A young male was brought
to me about two years ago, taken alive in the Yarra
at Kew. In the National Museum we possess an
artistic case, showing with great beauty and fidelity
the nature of the haunts and habits of this remark-
able animal.
BIRDS.
In response to my request, Mr. A. J. Campbell has
kindly furnished the following information on birds
peculiar to Victoria, birds of economic value, and
on questions of the migration and geographical dis-
tribution of our Avi-fauna. Mr. Campbell has
devoted his life to the study of ornithology, and has,
probably, by far the best practical acquaintance with
our birds in their native haunts of any one in the
colony. He has also contributed notes on some of
our more conspicuous birds from his own observa-
tions in the bush:-
Birds Peculiar to Victoria.— Victoria forms such a
small portion of the Australian continent that it
may be expected very few birds are peculiar to its terri-
tory. Only one species of the remarkable lyre bird
(Menura victoriæ), and the beautiful honey-eater
(Ptilotis cassidix) have not yet been found beyond its
boundaries, being confined to the great timber tracts
of the eastern portion of the colony. It may be
mentioned, however, that one or two, such as the
cautious wren (Hylacola cauta) and the rufous-








66
ZOOLOGY: VERTEBRATA.
cheerful notes of the first reed warblers (Calamoherpe
australis). The advance guard of the cuckoos also
put in an appearance the same month. Later on
follow the kingfisher (Halcyon sanctus), bee-eater
(Merops), caterpillar-catcher (Lalage), &c., and
lastly fly-catchers, notably Myiagra rubecula, M.
nitida and Ilhipidura rufifrons. All, with the excep-
tion of snipe, breed in Victoria, returning northward
as the colder months approach. With regard to
nomadic or wandering birds, a few species regulate
their movements by the supply of food. For
instance, wood swallows (Artamus superciliosus)
arrive at intervals of about three years, and are
generally preceded by plagues of locusts or cater-
pillars. Then the uncertainty of flowering eucalypts
keep the various lorrikeets (Trichoglossi) on the
wing. Last February and March they were crossing
Melbourne in a north-easterly direction. There are
also a few species from extra Australian limits, such
as curlew and whimbrel (Numenius) and other
waders, all from the northern hemisphere. Swifts
(Chatura caudacuta) sometimes appear in numbers
towards the end of the summer.
Geographical Distribution.—Of the 337 recorded
Victorian land birds there are a few cosmopolitans or
real “globe-trotters ”—the grey plover (Charadrius
helveticus), knot (Tringa canuta), curlew sandpiper
(T. subarquata), glossy ibis (Ibis falcincellus), egret
(Herodias alba), &c. But of the total (337) about
half, roughly speaking, extend to northern Queens-
land, which number in turn diminishes to about a
third on reaching New Guinea. Western Australia
may be included in the habitat of between 140 and
150 Victorian varieties, while Tasmania includes
120, and New Zealand about 20-chiefly waders.
NOTE.-All game, ornamental, and useful birds are protected by law
in Victoria for stated seasons, some of the more important perpetually,








ZOOLOGY: VERTEBRATA.
67
Remarkable Species. --Three or four are con-
spicuous above all others, and are peculiarly Austra-
lian, namely, the lyre bird, Mallee fowl, and bower
birds. The lyre bird (Menura victoria) inhabits the
dark, dank, heavily timbered tracts of Gippsland.
It is one of the most remarkable birds in the world,
resembling a lanky domestic fowl, with strong legs
and immense claws. The general colour is dusky-
brown. The male only is adorned with the elegant
lyre-shaped tail, an appendage about 30in. long.
The food consists of beetles, centipedes, snails, &c.,
and occasionally bush mice. Lyre birds are the
shyest of all shy birds, the slightest noise causing
them to disappear as if by magic. During certain
months of the year, in the mornings and evenings,
the aisles of the forest resound most delightfully
with the melodious liquid songs of the male birds.
In addition to his natural notes, he is a most won-
derful mocking creature, imitating to the very semi-
tone the vocality of any of his feathered compeers,
whether the solemn • mo-poke” of the owl, the
coarse laughter of the great kingfisher, the crack of
the coach-whip bird, or the higher pitched notes of
smaller fry. He is equally at home with other
familiar forest sounds—the grunting of the koala,
the howling of a dingo, the ring of the selector's axe,
or the grating of his saw-all are perfectly re-
produced in the throat of this most singular feathered
mimic. On one occasion a tramp, hearing a saw in
an adjacent gully, descended to ask the woodsman
for a few matches, when, to his chagrin, the tramp
found that a bird had duped him. All songs
and sounds are usually poured forth with all the
bird's soul on little permanent mounds of earth,
which he scrapes up, and upon which, briunfull of
abandon, he capers, struts, and reflects his beautiful
tail. Only one egg, the colour of the parents' own


68
ZOOLOGY: VERTEBRATA.
feathers, is laid a year. The sole task of incubating
it devolves upon the female. Exceedingly romantic
situations are selected for nests, sometimes in hazel
or musk tree scrub, or cleft between noble fern-tree
trunks, or upon the ground at the source of some
secluded gully with steep banks on either hand, and
where long, graceful fronds, meeting above, com-
pletely subdue the charming picture, while the air is
charged with the sweet and powerful aroma from
blossoming sassafras trees.
To the dry, arid Mallee scrub of the Western District
is a radical change of scene. There the so-called
Mallee hen, or native name, Lowan (Leipoa ocellata)
loves to dwell. Its curious natural economy is
replete with interest. In disposition shy, timid, and
seldom seen. It much resembles in shape and size
a greyish, mottled, domestic turkey, but is smaller,
more compact, and stouter in the legs. Food con-
sists of berries, seeds, insects, and tender shoots of
plants. Perhaps the most striking characteristic of
the Mallee hen is that it does not incubate its eggs
after the manner of other birds, but consigns them
(12 to 16 in nuniber) to a large mound of sand, swept
up by the aid of the birds' wings and breast, where
the eggs are hatched by the action of the sun's rays,
together with the heat engendered by decomposing
vegetation placed underneath the sand. This native
incubator is sometimes equal to a displacement of
about 150 cubic feet. The temperature by Fahrenheit
indicates about 93deg., or about 10deg. lower than
an artificial incubator. Two eggs a week are
deposited.
The bower birds are genuine ornithological novel-
ties. Victoria possesses two-the satin bower
bird (Ptilonorhynchus violaceus) tenanting the eastern
portion, and the spotted (Clamydodera maculata)
the north-western. Both their extraordinary bowers





中​。


ZOOLOGY: VERTEBRATA.
69
are constructed in unfrequented parts of the
scrubs. The birds appear to tread down upon
the ground a platform about 6ft. or more in circum-
ference of fine twigs, sticks, and grass, then in the
centre they erect two parallel walls, about 9in. apart,
of long twigs firmly secured in the matted base,
gradually tapering upwards and meeting, or almost
so, about 2ft. above. Great taste for the beautiful
is displayed by the birds in decorating their play-
houses with the bright plumes of their cousins,
notably parrakeets ; also with other attractive objects
such as shells, bleached bones, and, since civilisa-
tion has encroached upon their domains, smooth
pieces of glass, buttons, and even coin of the realm.
These fanciful bowers are used by the birds simply
as “ spooning” or flirting arbours, and are not the
nests, as many persons suppose. The respective
nests are somewhat loose structures, always placed
in low trees or thick bush, as the case may be, con-
taining three or four eggs. The spotted bower
birds' eggs being of remarkable beauty. Bower birds
are frugivorous, consequently the hand of every
orchardist is against them.
REPTILIA.
Victoria possesses representatives of the orders of
chelonians, lizards, and snakes. The Gippsland
crocodiles are of newspaper creation merely.
Of chelonians, the Murray tortoise, Chelymys mac-
quaria, is very common in the Murray and its
tributaries, from the south as well as from the north.
It is not found in the rivers flowing into the sea on
the south coast of Victoria. On the other hand,
the long-necked river tortoise occurs in those of
South Gippsland, as also in the more northern
Australian rivers.





ZOOLOGY: VERTEBRATA.
71
adder, Acanthophis antarctica. The most abundant.
of these are the tiger snake, Hoplocephalus curtus,
the most widespread, active, and dangerous of them
all; the brown snake, Diemenia superciliosa, pretty
generally distributed; the copper-head, H. superbus,
and whip-snakes, H. flagellum and H. coronoides, in
the southern districts; with the black snake, Pseu-
dechys porphyriacus, and the deaf adder, near the
Murray.
AMPHIBIA.
Our commonest frog is the golden bull-dog, Ra-
noidea aurea. Two others have also been described
and figured in the “ Decades,” Limnodynastes tasma-
niensis and L. dorsalis. This very meagre list
evidently requires to be largely supplemented, espe-
cially in the face of Mr. Fletcher's catalogue of
species from the neiglabourhood of Sydney.
Fish.
There seem to be only about ten kinds of strictly
resident sharks as yet known or recorded from Victorian
seas. These are the hammer-head, Zygana malleus ;-
the grey nurse, Odontaspis americanus ; carpet shark,
Crossorhinus barbatus; angel fish, Rhina squatina ;
spotted dog-fish, Parascyllium nuchale; tope, Galeus
australis ; smooth hound, Mustelus antarcticus; picked
dog-fish, Acanthias vulgaris ; saw-fish, Pristiophorus
nudipinnis ; and Port Jackson shark, Heterodontus
phillipi. The seven-gilled shark, the white shark,
and the thresher are occasional visitors, and single
captures have been made of Carcharias melanopterus,
and of the spiny and the basking sharks. A speci-
men of the latter, 36ft. long, was taken at Portland
in 1883. Our commoner rays are the sting ray,
Myliobatis nieuhofii, Raja lemprieri, Urolophus testaceus,
and the fiddler ray, Trygonorhina fasciata. The king


72
ZOOLOGY: VERTEBRATA.
of the herrings, Callorhynchus antarcticus, is fairly
common with us, and is afflicted with the same
parasitic genus, Synaptyches, as is its northern repre-
sentative.
The most useful for food of our marine bony
fishes are the Gippsland perch, Lates colonorum ;
salmon trout, Arripis truttaccus ; the ludrick, Girella
simplex; snapper, Pagrus unicolor ; bream, Chry-
sophrys australis; butter fish, Chilodactylus nigricans ;
flat-heads, Platycephalus bassensis and P. lævigatus ;
whiting, Sillago punctata ; pyke, Sphyræna nova-
hollandiæ ; king fish, Sciæna antarctica ; barracouta,
Thyrsites atun ; silver trevally, Caranæ georgianus ;
skip-jack, Temnodon saltator; sand mullet, Muyil
grandis; mullet, Agonostoma diemensis ; stranger,
Odax richardsoni ; rock cod, Pseudophycis barbatus;
sole, Rhombosolea bassensis ; flounder, Pleuronectes
victoria ; gar-fish, Hemirhamphus intermedius ; and
pilchard, Clupea sagax.
Species remarkable for their form, colour, or
habits are the old-wife, Enoplosus armatus, and
Veotephræops zebra, with their black transverse zebra-
like stripes; the flying gurnets, Trigla polyommata,
T, kumu, and Lepidotrigla vanessa ; the stone-lifter,
Kathetostoma læve; the gorgeous multi-coloured
parrot-fish, Labrichthys and Heteroscarus ; the sea-
horses, of which our most common species is
Hippocampus breviceps, with their ally, the sea-dragon,
Phyllopteryx foliatus ; the leather-jackets, Mona-
canthus ; toad-fish, Tetrodon ; sea hedge-hogs, Diodon;
and the beautiful trunk-fishes, Aracana,
With regard to the river fish, the most interesting
point is their local distribution. In the rivers of the
Murray system we have the Murray cod, Oligorus
macquariensis, species of Ctenolates, Therapon,
Murrayia, and the Murray cat-fish, Copidoglanis
tandanus. None of these were found originally in





ZOOLOGY: VERTEBRATA.
73
our southern streams. Again, the Yarra herring,
Protoctroctes marana, several species of Galaxias,
and the black-fish, Gadopsis marmoratus, are the
characteristic original southern forms. The dis-
tribution of the species of Galaxias needs elucidation,
but it is certain that several of the Yarra species do
not occur in the north-flowing rivers. Very small
black-fish are common in the upper reaches of those
streams, but do not attain at all to the size which
they reach in the Yarra (of old days) and the Gipps-
land rivers. Thus the fresh-water fish of the south
Victorian water-courses are those of Tasmania, and
not, generally speaking, even remotely allied to
those found in the rivers of the Murray system.
There are two sorts of Lampreys which live in the
tidal waters of the southern streams. The commoner
is the Tasmanian Lamprey, Mordacia mordax.
The Lancelet has been dredged in large numbers
on the sandy bottoms of Western Port and the
South Channel of Port Phillip, in the latter locality
by Mr. Bracebridge Wilson.
In composing this account of the Victorian Verte-
brates, I have made use of all available means of
information. I have especially to acknowledge in-
debtedness to the National Museum, and to Professor
M'Coy's valuable “Decades,” and to Mr. D. Le Souef,
the assistant director of the Zoological Gardens, for
his kindness in imparting information concerning
the distribution of some of our mammals, which he
has long been accumulating.


ZOOLOGY : INVERTEBRATA.
75
With regard to the terrestrial invertebrate fauna,
we must rely on the exertions of individual explorers,
and much may be done in this way. The fresh-water
fauna is perhaps less known to us than either the
marine or terrestrial, and a thorough examination of
our rivers, lakes, and ponds cannot fail to yield most
valuable results.
For the purposes of the present chapter it will be
convenient to consider the invertebrate fauna of Vic-
toria under three main heads—(1) Marine, (2) Fresh-
water, (3) Terrestrial. A complete enumeration of
the species, or even genera, as yet known to us in
each of these divisions would, of course, be entirely
unsuitable even did space admit of it—for a chapter
like the present, which aims at placing before the
scientific public only a very general idea of the pre-
sent state of our knowledge. I propose, however, to
treat the matter systematically, taking group by
group, and giving some brief account of the most
interesting or best known members of each. Many
lamentable gaps which I have been unable to fill will
at once be apparent to the zoologist. Some of these
at least are due to actual gaps in our knowledge, and
we can only hope that they will be to a large extent
filled up before the Association again meets in
Melbourne.
To several local zoologists I am greatly indebted
for much valuable assistance in the preparation of
this chapter, and most especially to Mr. J. Brace-
bridge Wilson, M.A., of the Geelong Grammar
School.
(1) THE MARINE INVERTEBRATES.
The following observations naturally apply princi-
pally to the fauna of Port Phillip and its immediate
neighbourhood outside the Heads, and this for rea-
sons already indicated. Fortunately, however, Port
RTEBRATES.


76
ZOOLOGY : INVERTEBRATA.
Phillip is a veritable store-house, teeming with the
lower forms of life, which doubtless find in the almost
land-encompassed bay a more congenial habitat
than along the open coast line, where the waves roll
in from the Southern Ocean with disastrous force
and sweep everything away before them. The great
richness of Port Phillip in invertebrate life is perhaps
to be accounted for partly by its geographical
peculiarities. Its immense area affords abundant
choice of habitat for the different forms, and abun-
dant variety in the nature of the bottom. The
comparatively small size of the channel through
which it communicates with the open ocean is also,
I believe, an important factor. Myriads of free
swimming larvæ of animals which are fixed or almost
stationary in the adult condition, must be washed in
with every tide. They have then the whole area of
the Bay to wander about in, and before they can
find their way out again through the narrow open-
ing the vast majority of them will have exchanged
the free swimming for a sedentary life, and find
themselves caught in a trap. Thus many more
individuals will be washed in than will ever get out
again, and every tide will bring its larval contribu-
tions to the invertebrate fauna of the Bay.
Porifera.-The Porifera or Sponges form certainly
the most conspicuous feature in the marine inverte-
brate fauna of Victoria. They are met with every-
where along our coasts in great profusion and variety.
Their dead skeletons are washed up in hundreds of
tons along the beach, and the living sponges crowd
the sea-bottom from low-water mark to the greatest
depths yet explored, and form thick encrustations
all over the piles of the various piers in the Bay.
They vary in shape, size and colouration to an
almost incredible degree ; from the amorphous bath
sponge (Euspongia) to the exquisitely cup-shaped








ZOOLOGY : INVERTEBRATA.
Grantiu labyrinthica; from the almost microscopical
calcareous forms to the huge masses of Spirastrella
and many other Silicea ; from the milky white of
most of the Calcarea to the brilliant purple of
Suberites wilsoni, the rosy red of Dendrilla rosea, and
the bright scarlet, orange, and blue of others. The
rarest colour is green, but even this is represented in.
several species, and most notably in a bright metallic:
green calcareous sponge, recently dredged by Mr.
Bracebridge Wilson and not as yet determined.
It is absolutely impossible to give anything like a.
short and concise account of the group, owing to the
great confusion which still exists with regard to the
nomenclature and classification. A large number of
species have, however, already been described by
Mr. Carter in the Annals and Magazine of Natural
History, from specimens collected and sent home
by Mr. Wilson, and there are something like 2000
specimens collected by the same naturalist at pre-
sent awaiting investigation.
The calcareous, siliceous and horny groups are all
abundantly represented in the Victorian fauna.
Amongst the Silicea, however, the Hexactinellida
are as yet wanting, but probably investigations in
deeper waters will reveal the presence of these also.
Amongst the calcareous-spiculed sponges, the
genus Clathrina is perhaps the most conspicuous;
there are several species, some attaining almost the
size of a child's head. They are mostly massive
sponges, made up each of an immense number of very
slender, ramifying and anastomosing, hollow threads,
interwoven so as to form a dense mass varying in
compactness according to the species. The most
beautiful of the Calcarea is, however, the extraordi-
nary Grantia labyrinthica, originally described by
Mr. Carter under the generic name Teichonella, but
very widely removed from that genus in reality.


78
ZOOLOGY: INVERTEBRATA.
This sponge consists of a stalked, wide-mouthed cup,
measuring some three or four inches across the top.
The wall of the cup is very thin and much folded on
itself, and pierced at right angles to the two surfaces
by the radial canals. The whole cup is, in short, a
single Sycon individual, with a very widely expanded
gastral cavity and an enormous Osculum. The
type-species of the genus Teichonella (T. prolifera)
is also found outside the Heads. It is a somewhat
encrusting form, rising up into vertical, wall-like
ridges or plates, along the margins of which are
placed rows of oscula. It is, perhaps, worth while
to take the present opportunity of correcting a mis-
take which has crept into the generally accepted
diagnosis of the genus, and upon which, indeed, the
family Teichonida has been chiefly maintained. It
is usually stated (e.4. by Vosmaer) that the oscula
are on one side of the plates and the pores on the
other, while, as a matter of fact, in the type species
the pores are on both sides and the oscula at the
top, along the margin. The sponge is, in short, a
typical Lewon.
Amongst the Silicea the Halichondrine sponges,
represented by the genera Reniera, Tedaniu, Mywilla,
Esperella and numerous others, predominate, offering
the greatest variety in size, shape, and colour. Other
groups, however, are by no means wanting. Tethya
ingalli, a very hard, orange-coloured sponge, about
the shape and size of a cricket ball, is exceedingly
common in certain parts of the Bay. Outside the
Heads we sometimes meet with the beautiful
Suberites wilsoni, a large, massive sponge, at once
recognisable by its peculiar bright purple colour,
present not only in the living specimens, but retained
permanently both in alcohol and after drying. The
colour of this sponge is a very powerful dye, and has
been found by Mr. Wilson to make deep and lasting


e_re


ZOOLOGY : INVERTEBRATA.
79
marks on the dredge-rope where it has come in
contact with it. The Tetractinellida are only fairly
represented, one of the commonest being an exquisite
little spherical Tetilla (probably T. æruginosa), generally
of a bright cobalt blue colour, owing to the presence
of symbiotic algæ.
Of the horny sponges, the most striking are
perhaps the large, cup-shaped forms. Dendrilla rosea
is also a singularly beautiful sponge, forming finger-
like branches covered with large conuli, and of a
beautiful rosy red colour. This species is frequently
found washed up along the sea-shore after high tides.
Some of the horny sponges (e.g., Stelospongos flabelli-
formis) are remarkable for the enormous size of the
embryos which they contain. From an economic
point of view, however, doubtless the most interesting
of all our sponges is a large species of Euspongia, well
adapted for domestic use, found outside the Heads.
To the Ceratosa are now also generally referred the
arenaceous sponges, such as Dysidea and Holopsamma,
which occur in great quantity in the neighbourhood of
the Heads. In these genera the horny fibres of the
skeleton are replaced by sand of varying degrees of
fineness, so that, when dry, the sponges readily
crumble to pieces. When alive they resemble
agglomerated masses of sand, invested and permeated
throughout by an abominable slime.
Sponges entirely devoid of skeleton are also well
represented by the genus Halisarea, which forms
great, fleshy, encrusting masses of a white or pinkish
colour, frequently found enveloping the stem of the
Ascidian Boltenia.
· Coelenterata.—A large number of Victorian Hydro-
zoa have been described by Mr. W. M. Bale in his
Catalogue of the Australian Hydroid Zoophytes,"
and elsewhere. To this work I would refer the
student who desires detailed information on the








ZOOLOGY: INVERTEBRATA.
81
Alcyonarians are fairly abundant, especially some
Pennatulid species, and these have been sent by the
Port Phillip Exploration Committee to Dr. Sydney
J. Hickson for determination. It is hoped that a
report on these forms will soon be published.
Echinodermata.-A number of Crinoids or feather
stars, collected by Mr. Bracebridge Wilson, were sent
to Dr. P. H. Carpenter, F.R.S., for identification.
They are all stalkless forms, and are identified by
Dr. Carpenter as belonging to five distinct species,
viz., Antedon pumila, Antedon wilsoni, Antedon ma-
cronema, Antedon (new species), and Actinometra tri-
choptera. Thus the crinoids are certainly well repre-
sented in the neighbourhood of Port Phillip Heads.
Probably the commonest is the small-sized Antedon
pumila.
The Echinoids or sea-urchins are also well repre-
sented in our marine fauna. The largest and most
beautiful are Goniocidaris tubaria (figured in the
“ Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria”) and G.
geranioides. Professor M'Coy states that the two are
easily distinguished, but at the same time suggests
that G. geranioides may be female, and G. tubaria male
of the same species. This suggestion is, however, not
supported by anatomical examination of the two forms
made by Mr. Wilson and myself, which tended to show
that sex has nothing to do with the distinction. Ambli-
preustes and Strongylocentrotus are also very abundant
in the Bay, the latter frequently bearing the parasitic
Gasteropod Stilifer. Echinocardium australe is also
abundant on muddy bottoms.
A number of Holothurians, not yet determined,
have been collected, and some species are by no
means uncommon. Star-fishes (Asteroidea) and
Brittle Stars (Ophiuroidea) are also abundant. Of
the former group one of the commonest is the
exquisitely tessellated Goniaster australis, frequently


82
ZOOLOGY : INVERTEBRATA,
seen shining like a brilliant red star at the bottom of
shallow water. Another common form is the dark
purple, cushion-shaped Asterina calcar, and another,
the little Asterias calamaria (?), chiefly remarkable
for the strange irregularity in the number and size
of its rays. I do not know any species of Ophiuroidea
from our shores which has been specifically
determined, although they are common enough.
A beautiful Euryalid, resembling Gorgonocephala, is
occasionally dredged by Mr. Wilson.
Mollusca.—We are fortunately in possession of
lists of the marine Mollusca of Victoria, published by
Mr. Gatliff and Mr. Bracebridge Wilson in the Victorian
Naturalist (Vols. IV. and V.) Mr. Gatliff's “ List of
some of the Shells of the Marine Mollusca found
upon the Victorian Coast” is by far the most exten-
sive, and comprises 264 species of Gasteropoda and
86 of Lamellibranchiata. The Gasteropoda are
distributed amongst 48 families, of which those most
numerous in species (i.e., the dominant families)
appear to be as follows:-Turbinida, 29 species ;
Muricida, 18 species ; Pleurotomida, 14 species ;
Columbellida, 13 species; Mitrida, 12 species ;
Centhida, 11 species ; Palellida, 10 species ; all the
remaining families contain less than 10 species
each. The Lamellibranchiata are distributed amongst
26 families, of which only two contain as many as
10 species, viz., the l'eneride with 17 species and
the Tellinidae with 10 species.
Mr. Wilson's list is naturally not so long as
Mr. Gatliff's, which embraces a much wider area.
Mr. Wilson has, however, up to the present date
(December, 1889) obtained no less than 168 species
of Gasteropodous and Lamellibranchiate Mollusca in
the neighbourhood of Port Phillip Heads alone, and
as these forms only are known to me I shall confine
my more special remarks to them, making use also





ZOOLOGY : INVERTEBRATA.
83
principally of the nomenclature employed by Mr.
Wilson, with which I am best acquainted.
Amongst the Gasteropoda, the following are note-
worthy forms:- Crepidula immersa and C. monoxyla.
The latter is found in the Pleistocene beds of Lime-
stone Creek, near the mouth of the Glenelg, and was
first found in the recent state in Australia by Mr.
Wilson. Sigapatella calyptræformis, a very abundant
and beautiful species. Conus anemone, very common
in dredgings, and also abundantly thrown up on the
beach. Cypræn bicolor, the Australian cowrie, a very
beautiful little shell, fairly common in the dredge,
closely allied to which is Trivia australis. Columbella
yorkensis and Murex triformis are also characteristic
and fairly common forms met with in the dredge.
Terebra albida is a beautiful milky white, steeple-
shaped spiral, which may be found on the shore to the
west of Sorrento. Perhaps the handsomest of all the
Port Phillip Gasteropoda is Voluta undulata, which
may be obtained in some abundance at the place last
mentioned when the tide is exceptionally low. This
species is at once recognisable by the conspicuous
reddish-brown wavy or zigzag lines which ornament
not only the smoothly polished shell, but also the
back of the living animal. Patella tramoserica, the
common Australian limpet, is a much less handsome
but a much more abundant shell, found in millions
clinging to the rocks between tide-marks, and often
attaining a very great size. Fissurella, the keyhole
limpet, may sometimes be met with between tide-marks,
and the allied form, Scutus (Parmophorus) anatinus is
uncommon, appearing in the living state as a large,
soft, black mass, in which the white, shield-shaped
shell is hidden; the smaller Tugalia parmophoidea is
also frequently met with. Of the Venus'-ear shells
or Haliotidæ (the Ormers of the Channel Islands) we
have three species, H. carinata, H. glabra and H.


84
ZOOLOGY : INVERTEBRATA.
rugoplicata. Haliotis is, indeed, one of the commonest
of the animals met with at the sea-side at about low-
water mark, clinging to the rocks with immense
tenacity. The British species of this genus is used as
an article of food, after being well pounded between
stones, but I am not aware that the experiment has
been tried in Australia. The Pheasant shells, Pha-
sianellidu, are highly characteristic of the Molluscan
fauna of Port Phillip ; P. bulimoides, a large and.
very beautiful species, presenting great variation in
colour and markings, is very common. A large
species of Turbo, T. undulatus, is very abundant
on the rocks about low-water mark, and is also
frequently met with in the fishmongers' shops.
Amongst the Tectibranchiata, Philine angasi and
Bulla australis are common. The former is especi.
ally abundant in some parts of the bay, and its thin.
and delicate shell and strong triangular teeth are
easily recognisable when once seen. The Chitons,
again, are very characteristic of our littoral marine
fauna. According to Mr. Gatliff, there are four
Victorian species of the family—Chiton australis,
C. petholatus, C. longicymba and the curious Chito-
nellus spinosus, with its very small dorsal plates not
nearly covering the body.
We come now to the Lamellibranchiata. We have
at least two species of true cockles, Cardium
cygnorum and C. tenuicostatum, and closely allied to
these we have the two very interesting and beautiful
forms, Pectunculus flabellatus and P. obliquus.
Crassatella kingicola is a large and very massive
bivalve, of a chestnut-brown colour, sometimes
dredged by Mr. Wilson near the Heads. The Razor
shells are represented by Solen vaginoides. Amongst
the Veneridæ the beautiful Night-cap shell (Chione
lamellata) and Tapes fabagella are very abundant.
One of the commonest, if not the commonest, of all








ZOOLOGY : INVERTEBRATA.
the shells washed up along high-water mark is the
wing-shell, Avicula georgiana (or pulchella), whose
delicate transparent valves vary in colour from red to
green. Among the Arcida we may notice Barbatia
radula and Arca trapezium, the latter now much more
common in a sub-fossil than in the living state. Mr.
Wilson records the occurrence of two distinct species
of oyster-Ostrea angasi and (), auriculata. The
largest bivalve which we have is, by a very long way,
Pinna tasmanica, of which beautiful specimens, about
a foot in length, may sometimes be obtained by
dredging. The Pectens or Scallops, which are occa-
sionally used as articles of food, are represented
more especially by P. asperrimus and P. fumatus, two
very common species which I have also dredged in
great abundance in the River Derwent at Hobart.
Mr. Wilson also records P. actinos and P. undulatus.
Lastly, we have the very beautiful and characteris-
tically Australian shell Trigonia margaritacea, which,
however, does not appear to be nearly so abundant
in the neighbourhood of Port Phillip as it is at
Sydney.
So far we have dealt only with the Gasteropodous
and Lamellibranchiate Mollusca of Victoria, and we
have still to mention the Cephalopoda, or cuttle-fish
family, of which some very interesting members
exist in our waters. All the following four species
will be found described and figured in Professor
M•Coy's “ Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria”:-
Sepioteuthis australis, the Australian tooth-cupped
cuttle-fish, is one of the rarer cuttle-fishes of the
Bay. It attains a very large size, the eye alone
being as much as two inches in diameter. Omma-
strephes gouldi, Gould's Squid, is a gregarious species
inhabiting mid-ocean. Sepia apama is the largest
and commonest cuttle-fish on our coasts, the internal
shell, or cuttle-bone, being abundant on the shore


86
ZOOLOGY : INVERTEBRATA.
| everywhere in the colony. Shells of the beautiful
Paper Nautilus, Argonauta oryzata, are sometimes
found on all parts of our coasts, stranded on the beach,
and the animal has been taken alive near Brighton.
Professor M.Coy states that all the shells are female ;
the male in this genus being devoid of a shell, and
not known at all in the case of A. oryzata. In
addition to these four species of Cephaloda, there is
a fairly large Octopus met with in the Bay, the specific
name of which I do not know; and Mr. T. S. Hall,
M.A., has obtained the delicate, spiral-chambered
shells of the extremely interesting Spirula australis
at Port Campbell, west of Cape Otway.
Brachiopoda.-Mr. A. H. S. Lucas, M.A., has
recently contributed a paper on the Victorian Brachio-
poda to the Proceedings of the Royal Society.
From this it appears that five distinct species have
been found in our seas, viz., Megerlia willemoesii, a
rare and very beautiful little species found by Mr.
Bracebridge Wilson outside the Heads; Terebratu-
lina cancellata ; Waldheimia flarescens ; Kraussina
lamarckiana, found in some abundance by Mr. Lucas
at Williamstown, and Magasella cumingi var. fibula.
Polyzoa.--Thanks to the prolonged and minute
investigations of Mr. P. H. MacGillivray and Mr. J.
Bracebridge Wilson, the marine Polyzoa of Victoria
are certainly better known to us than any other
group of marine invertebrates, with the exception of
the Mollusca. The state of our knowledge of these
interesting forms in 1887 is admirably summarised
in Mr. MacGillivray’s “ Catalogue of the Marine
Polyzoa of Victoria,” published by the Royal Society
of Victoria in that year. To this Catalogue, and to
the excellent descriptions and figures given by Mr.
MacGillivray in the “ Prodromus of the Zoology of
Victoria," I must refer the reader for detailed infor-
mation. About 350 species are included in the list,


Syn. Argonauta
nodosa (Solander)
tuberculata (Shaw)
tuberculoza (Schumacher)
oryzata (Mensch)
Shell.
M'Coy says he has nwar euerueded ni funding the male.
The objecte popularly miscalled Paper Nautili should not
really be compared with true shells, like that of the Nautilus
to which the mhabitant i träed by organic attachments,
without tearing wh: or destroying the life of the animal in would
ke mpossible 5 separate then. Thé argonaut or Paper Nautilus,
is always excessively thin, white, mperfectly callipied, so ad
to be Hightly fliecible when fresh, and totally unconnected
with the oefopens inhabitinpit, so that the so-called thell
may be dropped us the animal befrightened, wrthout
inguring any of the soft-parts of the animal. This want
géonnection between the Argonaut and it mhabitant
was known wen to Aristotle. The animal, which was
called Deythoë by Rafinesque, ihabiting the tonaut
shell is shaped to fit in the inrolled spire by a peculiarity
of form in the body not found in any other of the Actabulifera,
viz. the profile of the back being concave, while the front is
convec; this recurving of the posterior and according in
shape with the cavity of the so-called shell, which is retained
in is place by the pair of enlarged racket-shaped posterior
arms bent backwards & closely embracing it. In this genus
the male has all the arms tapering, is very much smallér
than the female, and without shed. The Mediterranean
shelled Argonauto mountly have a curiod, swollen, detached
arm of the male adhering to them, who a parasitie worm,
obviously having functons connected with the fertilisation
of the eggs, but formed into a supposed genus of parasites
by Cuvier; and these, like the male animal itelff, have
escaped notice ithe Australian examples.





ZOOLOGY : INVERTEBRATA.
87
but, as Mr. MacGillivray observes, the only locality
which has been systematically searched is the
neighbourhood of Port Phillip Heads, and the list will
certainly be very much added to.
The most striking and handsomest of the Victorian
Polyzoa are certainly the species of the genus Adeona,
sometimes known as black corals, of which four occur
in our seas. Aileona albida is common outside Port
Phillip Heads, where it occurs in masses as large as
a man's head, each consisting of a number of thin,
brittle, fenestrated plates, branching and anasto-
mosing with one another, and the whole mass
perched upon a short, twisted stem, attached to the
rocks by root-like processes. Several species of
Polyzoa have already been added to Mr. MacGillivray's
list, and of these the most remarkable are the two
species of Cryptozoon, C. wilsoni and C. concretum,
which I have described in detail in the “Proceedings
of the Royal Society of Victoria” for 1888. The genus
differs from all other known Polyzoa in the habit of
enveloping the zoæcia in agglomerations of sand-
particles, a habit which for long prevented tlie
recognition of the true nature of the organisms,
until, in fact, through Mr. Wilson's kindness, I was
able to make a microscopical examination of living
specimens. Both species are common in Port Phillip,
and C. wilsoni has since been recorded from Sydney.
Mr. Wilson has kindly furnished me with the
following note concerning the Polyzoa found inside
the Heads; the stations referred to (St.) are those
adopted by the Port Phillip Exploration Committee
of the Royal Society of Victoria :-“ The greater part
of those in Dr. MacGillivray's Catalogue have been
found outside the Heads. Amongst those which are
met with inside Port Phillip, chiefly in the dredging
stations near the Heads, may be mentioned :-
“ Rhavilozoum wilsoni. Rare. Sts. 1, 5 and 9.


88
ZOOLOGY : INVERTEBRATA.
1
“ Catenicilla fusca. St. 1.
“ Scrupocellaria obtecta. Growing on the surface
of sponges. Sts. 5 and 9.
“ Farcimia appendiculata. St. 9.
“ Tubucellaria cerevides. St. 9.
“ Stirparia exilis. On sponge, St. 1.
“ Verrucularia dichotoma. Very abundant on
St. 5.
“ Electra flagellum. Sts. 5, 8, 9.
“ Diploporella cincta. Wherever Cymodocea occurs.
66 Adeona cellulosa. Rare inside the Heads. St. 1.
" Parmularia obliqua. Rare inside. Sts. 1 and 5.
“ Petralia undata. Frequent. Sts. 1, 3, 5 and 9.
“ Densipora corrugata. On stems of Cymodocea and
hard-stemmed algæ.
“ Hlustrella cylindrica. Not uncommon. Sts. 1,
5, 9.
“ Amathia. Most of the species, some of which
are new, occur at St. 1 and in the South Channel.
“ Pedicellina is met with on algæ and sponges.
Sts. 1, 5, 8 and 9."
Marine Worms.-A large number of very interest-
ing marine worms have been collected by Mr.
Wilson, including Turbellarians, Nemertines, Gephy-
reans, Polychætes and probably other groups, but
none of the forms have as yet been specifically de-
termined.
Arthropoda.—Amongst the Crustacea, only the
larger and more conspicuous forms, and especially
such as are good for food, are at all well known to
us. Of these the Melbourne Crayfish (Palinurus
lalandi) is doubtless the best known, being very
common in the market. This animal, which is
excellent eating, attains a length of 18 inches,
exclusive of the antennæ. It abounds in Victoria,
Tasmania and New Zealand, and also at the Cape
of Good Hope. It is not, however, known as far





90
ZOOLOGY: INVERTEBRATA.
adopted, and give what little information I can in a
systematic manner.
Protozoa.-The Infusoria, so far as my very
limited observations extend, appear to closely
resemble the European forms. A very fine species
of Acineta occurs infesting a Vorticella-like form
parasitic on Astacopsis bicarinatus in the University
lake. I have also seen exquisite specimens of the
remarkable Anthophysa vegetans, exactly correspond-
ing with those figured by Saville Kent in his manual
of the Infusoria, and obtained by the Rev. Mr.
Fielder in the neighbourhood of Melbourne. Pro-
bably our fresh-water Infusorian fauna will be found,
as might indeed be expected from what is known of
the geographical distribution of the group, to present
no marked peculiarities.
Porifera.–Of freshwater sponges I have already
mentioned Meyenia capewelli, recorded by Lendenfeld
from Lake Hindmarsh. Two or three species occur
in the Barwon River, near Geelong, where they have
been obtained by Mr. Bracebridge Wilson, but these
I have not yet had time to determine.
Coelenterata.—Hydra oligactis, apparently identical
with the British form (frequently known under the
name H. fusca), occurs in the neighbourhood of
Melbourne, and Mr. Bracebridge Wilson informs me
that a Hydrozoon, somewhat resembling Coryne,
occurs near the junction of the Moorabool and
Barwon Rivers.
Polyzoa.—A species of Plumatella, probably P.
repens, is abundant in the Barwon, and in waterholes
far from the river, growing on weed (Wilson).
Mollusca.—The genus Lymnæa amongst the
Gasteropoda, and Unioamongst the Lamellibranchiata,
are very common, and beyond this I can say nothing
of the fresh-water Mollusca. The group appears to
have been entirely neglected in Victoria.





ZOOLOGY: INVERTEBRATA.
91
Arthropoda.—The Crustacea are well represented
in our rivers, lakes, and ponds. Beginning with the
lower forms, we have a species of the curious genus
Apus occurring in several localities. Branchipus has
been found in abundance by Mr. Wilson amongst
the salt scrub between the Geelong Botanical
Gardens and Point Henry. Two distinct species of
crayfishes are known to us, Astacopsis serratus, the
Murray lobster, and A. bicarinatus, the Yabber
crayfish. Both are figured and described in the
“Prodromus.” Concerning the first-mentioned, Pro-
fessor M.Coy writes :-" This gigantic species is now
sent to the Melbourne market in considerable
quantity from the Murray by railway for the table
instead of lobsters, and is by far the most delicious
of the few Victorian Crustacea good for food.” A
variety of the species, A. serratus var. yarraensis, is
common in the River Yarra. The Yabber crayfish,
Astacopsis bicarinatus, attains a length of about six
inches, exclusive of the antenne. It apparently
does not inhabit running water, and it does great
damage to dams and reservoirs by burrowing through
the banks. It can live a long time in its under-
ground burrows after the water above has dried up.
The species is extremely abundant in many places,
as for example in the University lake, in which locality
it is found swarming with the parasitic Trematode
Temnocephala, a curious worm described in detail by
Professor Haswell in the “Quarterly Journal of Micro-
scopical Science” for November, 1887.
(3.) THE TERRESTRIAL INVERTEBRATES.
Worms.- Victoria is very rich in interesting terres-
trial worms of various kinds. Commencing with
the lowest forms, we find the land Planarians very








ZOOLOGY: INVERTEBRATA.
93
on the lower surface and very dark olive-green on
the upper. Another common species is bright sul-
phur-yellow all over, and others are ornamented with
variously-coloured longitudinal stripes running down
the back.
Closely related to the land Planarians is a very
extraordinary little worm which I had the good for-
tune to discover quite recently under stones and
dead wood at Walhalla, Gippsland. This is one of
the extremely rare and interesting terrestrial Nemer-
tines—a group which is almost exclusively marine.
According to Jackson (“Forms of Animal Life')
only four terrestrial Nemertines are as yet known,
one of which, Geonemertes chalicophora, is given as
doubtfully coming from Australia. The Walhalla
Nemertine is, when lying still, a small slug-like crea-
ture, very slimy and somewhat translucent, and of a
brownish-orange colour. When crawling it elongates
itself, and the anterior part of the body is seen to
terminate in a small head. The most remarkable
feature about the animal is the presence of a very
long, cylindrical, white proboscis, which, when not in
use, is packed away in a special sheath lying along
the dorsal surface, but which can be shot out from an
aperture at the anterior end of the animal with
lightning-like rapidity, and then withdrawn into the
body again. The Nemertines are at once distinguished
from the Planarians by the presence of the proboscis,
by the position of the mouth at the extreme anterior
end of the body, by the absence of a sucker, and by the
presence of a definite vent or anus at the posterior
end of the body. (Since this was written I have
found another specimen of a terrestrial Nemertine,
probably specifically identical with the Walhalla
specimens, in a collection of Planarians kindly
obtained for me by Mr. Bracebridge Wilson from
the Otway Forest.)


94
ZOOLOGY: INVERTEBRATA.
Other somewhat near relations of the Planarians
are the only too well-known land-leeches, which
abound in our gullies. They may be at once recog-
nised by their peculiar looping mode of progression and
by the presence of two powerful suckers, one at the
anterior end containing the mouth, and one at the
posterior end.
The most striking of our terrestrial worms still
remains to be noticed—the Giant Earthworm of
Gippsland. This remarkable Oligochæte has recently
been very fully described and illustrated by Professor
W. Baldwin Spencer in the 6 Transactions of the
Royal Society of Victoria.” The worm (Megascolides
australis ) appears to be abundant in the neighbour-
hood of Warragul and Brandy Creek, and another
species of the genus is also found in Gippsland. It
is probably the largest earthworm in the world, and
attains the extraordinary length of six feet, with a
corresponding thickness. The animal is, however,
capable of great elongation, and under ordinary
circumstances the length is probably seldom, if ever,
so great. Professor Spencer gives the average length
as from 44 to 48 inches, with a breadth of three-
quarters of an inch. The worm lives principally on
the sloping sides of creeks, being sometimes found
beneath fallen logs and sometimes turned out of the
ground by the plough. The presence of the animal
underground may be recognised by a very distinct
gurgling sound made as it retreats in its burrow
when the ground above is stamped upon. It has a
peculiar smell when living, somewhat resembling
that of creasote, and when held in the hand it throws
out jets of a milky fluid from its dorsal pores to a
height of several inches. For the anatomical details of
the structure of this remarkable worm I must refer
to Professor Spencer's beautiful monograph, from
which the information above given is extracted.








96
ZOOLOGY: INVERTEBRATA.
at the extremity of each oral papilla. This secretion,
on coming in contact with the air, very soon hardens,
and it is supposed to be used by the animal for the
purpose of capturing the insects upon which it feeds,
so that it has been not inaptly compared, as regards
function, with the web of a spider. It is not, how-
ever, used as a set trap for catching the insects, but
is shot out at them from some little distance.
Peripatus leuckartii is remarkable for its great
range in colour variation, being dark indigo-blue, or
almost black, in some cases, and chestnut-red in
others. The predominant marking consists of a
series of diamond-shaped patches of dusky red along
the back, and I have endeavoured to show elsewhere*
that the markings of all the specimens may be
deduced from one and the same fundamental pattern.
The Australian species is very closely related to one
found in New Zealand (P. nove-zealandiæ), the two
being distinguished only by certain very small struc-
tural differences, and by the markings on the back.
The other species of the genus are found in very
different parts of the globe, viz., South America, the
West Indies, and the Cape of Good Hope.
With regard to the remaining terrestrial Arthro-
pods--the Spiders, Scorpions, Land Crabs, Centipedes
and Insects, I do not propose to go into any detail.
The spiders and insects of Victoria are enormously
numerous, and a great deal is already known about
them. The Australian spiders have been very fully
treated of by von Koch, and of the insects a few of
the more remarkable Lepidoptera and Orthoptera will
be found beautifully illustrated in Professor M.Coy's
“ Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria." The sub-
ject of entomology is moreover dealt with in a special
article.
* Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 1889.





قلة


98
ENTOMOLOGY.
respect the botanist is better off than the ento-
mologist, since he can avail himself of the most
complete herbarium of Australian specimens in the
world.
The study of economic entomology—of the life
history of the injurious or useful insects of our
colony—is yet in its infancy, and although a little
has been done by private individuals, as also in our
National Museum, it cannot be said with truth that
the subject has obtained the consideration which it
deserves. We hope, however, with the co-operation
of all entomological workers, to be able to report
ere long that this branch of natural history is in a
more satisfactory state.
In looking over the literature of Victorian ento-
mology, we are at once struck with the small
number of species which are credited to us as being
peculiar to Victoria. Although there is a large
number of insects (other than those of the orders
Coleoptera and Lepidoptera) described in European
and other works, many of these works are almost
out of print. Not only this, but many of the names
adopted are obsolete, or nearly so, whilst others are
in the French, German, Italian, or Russian
languages, and, to the uninitiated, are next to useless.
The attention of the greater part of those who, in
Victoria, have taken up the study of insects, has
been confined to the large order Coleoptera, or
Beetles, and in most cases special attention has
been paid to certain groups, the members of which
are remarkable for brilliancy of colour, grotesque
form or large size, to the exclusion of minor, less
attractive, but not less important groups, which have
been sadly neglected.
Taking first the Coleoptera, the Buprestida present
examples of some of the most brilliantly coloured
amongst insects, and although we cannot in Victoria


ENTOMOLOGY.
99
boast of such splendid species as are found in
tropical parts, yet some of ours, though small, are as
beautifully marked as any to be found elsewhere.
We can muster, of Buprestidæ, some 150 species, the
largest being Stigmodera heros, an insect destructive
to the trees of Melaleuca uncinata in the Mallee
district, the north-west portion of the colony. This
insect has also been taken in South and Western
Australia. The next largest are Stigmodera villicollis
and S. fortnumi, both very fine beetles of great
rarity. Each of these three measures about three
inches in length, whilst the smallest, a species of
Aphanisticus, only reaches the length of one line.
The Buprestida, whilst in the larval stage, are all
more or less injurious to vegetation, owing to their
boring habits. As a rule the perfect insect lives
amongst flowers, and, with the exception of the
genera Chalcophora (of which genus we have one
species, C. albivitta in Victoria), Cyria, and a few
others, may be found on the flowers of our native
and other plants. Australia altogether can boast of
between eight and nine hundred species of this
splendid family.
Next in importance we may regard the Longicorns,
or long-horned beetles. These are more numerous
in Victoria than the Buprestida, and are justly
admired on account of their elegant form and
singular habits. The Longicorns are all wood-
feeders, and many are amongst the most destructive
of our Victorian insects.
Foremost amongst these we may instance
Phoracantha tricuspis, a large brown beetle, the larva
of which is found in the timber of various kinds of
gum trees. On a hot summer's evening the perfect
insect may often be seen emerging from the tree in
which it has passed the early part of its existence.
Being on a visit once to the north-west part of the


100
ENTOMOLOGY.
colony, my attention was drawn to an insect which
had made great havoc amongst the redgum trees
(Eucalyptus rostrata), and upon splitting open a
large limb, there in the centre lay a large swarm of
a very common and well-known Longicorn, Phora-
ccntha recurva, and, with the adult, numbers of the
young larvæ. One of our largest Victorian species,
Cnemoplites edulis, feeds almost solely upon the wood
of the beach honeysuckle (Banksia integrifolia), and
by the united action of its larvæ, together with those
of a Buprestid beetle, the tree is soon destroyed.
It would be useless to enumerate the large number
of species of this family, so we may pass on to the
family Cetonida. This splendid group of beetles,
which contains in its ranks the gigantic goliath
beetles of tropical Africa, are fairly numerous in
Australia. In Victoria we have several pretty and
rare species, one of the most beautiful of them being
Schizorhina australasia, an insect whose wing cases
are of a dark chestnut colour, with irregular bright
yellow markings, somewhat in the form of a lyre.
The largest and rarest of our Victorian species is
Schizorhina bakewelli, a splendid insect of about an
inch and a half in length, and of a bright, shining
chestnut colour. This fine species is sometimes
found lying dead, but I have taken one pair alive,
and these were feeding on the exuding gum of
Acacia decurrens, or black wattle. In all, four-
teen species represent this genus in Victoria, the
two commonest being S. australasia and S. punctata.
The genus Valgus (Microvalgus of Kraatz) is also
represented by one species, viz., Valgus lapeyrousii,
of about one line in length. Many of these insects,
when in the larval stage, do harm to crops, but the
damage done by them is quite insignificant when
compared with that of the following group, commonly
known as cockchafers.





ENTOMOLOGY,
103
are several insects destructive to timber, &c., but
they are not numerous in the colony.
The Lucanida (always favourites with collectors)
are fairly well represented in Australia, but very
few species occur in Victoria. The genera,
Lamprima, Rhysonotus, Lissopterus, Lissotus, Syndesus,
Ceratognathus, and Figulus, being the only ones
found here. Without a doubt the new Lucanid,
Phalacrognathus muelleri, introduced from N. Queens-
land, is the most splendid of the whole group, and
it is allied to our well-known genus Lamprima, or
golden beetle.
Victoria is not rich as regards the Coccinelidæ, or
lady-birds, although we have a few species, one or
more of which is said to be of much benefit in keep-
ing in check certain kinds of the Coccidae, or scale
insects, these latter, according to report, being
destroyed by the larvæ of the lady-bird.
In the order Lepidoptera, we are comparatively
poor in the Rhopalocera, or butterflies, the principal
groups being the Papilionida, Pierida, Nymphalida,
Danaidæ, &c.; and in the Heterocera, or moths,
although we have a vast number of small and
micro-lepidoptera, there are comparatively few that
are large and fine, as are many of those from
Queensland and New South Wales, notably the
Hepialidæ, &c. Some of our largest diurnal moths
are species of Antheraea, one of which, A. eucalypti,
is very destructive to young gum trees, the eggs
being laid by the female upon the leaves, the larvæ
when hatched feeding most voraciously upon the
tree. The moth is large and of a buff colour, with
two eye-like spots on the wings. The larva is,
when full grown, about four or five inches in length,
and the markings on it are of the most beautiful
colours.
The larvæ of a large number of Victorian moths


104
ENTOMOLOGY.
are very destructive, more especially those of the
Tortricida, Tineida, Noctuida, &c., the well-known
codlin moth belonging to the former group. The
large moth, Endoxyla eucalypti, is terribly destructive,
while in the larval state, to our common wattles,
and many of the Hepialide (all wood destroyers) are
plentiful in the colony. The well-known Zelotypia
staceyi, of New South Wales, is one of the largest
of these forms, measuring quite nine inches across
the wings. In Victoria we have some very beautiful
ones, some being of a bright green colour, but very
destructive to the native timber.
The Sphingide, or hawk moths, are not well
represented in the colony, and we have but four
or five kinds, the beautiful species, Chaerocampa
australasive, being destructive whilst in the larval
stage to vines. The largest is Cæquosa triangularis,
a splendid insect, measuring about six or seven
inches across the wings, but comparatively rare in
Victoria. In Queensland and in New South Wales
there are many fine species, some of the genus
Macroglossa being very singular and interesting.
Our space being limited, we must leave the Le-
pidoptera, and pass on to the Orthoptera, a group
which furnishes us with some of the largest and
most grotesque specimens of insect life. The
Phasmide, or “spectre insects,” are few in Victoria,
although some of them, as dcrophylla titan, Cyphu-
crania, and others are large and showy, the former
sometimes attaining a length of 14 inches, and
a width across the wings of 12 inches. This
species is dark in colour, but the Cyphucrania is of a
most beautiful and delicate green, white, and pink.
There are other kinds, but they are smaller. The
Phasmide are mostly vegetable-feeders, whilst the
Mantidæ (of which our common “ praying mantis”
may be taken as the type) subsist for the greater part





ENTOMOLOGY.
105
on insects, which they capture with great dexterity.
The singular wax-like cocoons which we find attached
to the heath shrubs about Brighton are those of the
Mantida. To this order belongs also the family of
the much-dreaded locust, as also the various kinds
of grasshoppers that work such dire destruction in
many parts of the colony. The Blattida, or cock-
roaches, are fairly numerous here, and the common
B. orientalis has been introduced, probably in ships'
cargoes, and, like most other noxious insects, both
native and introduced, seems to flourish but too
well.
The mole-cricket, belonging to the family Gryl-
lide, is also here, and does a considerable amount of
damage to gardens.
Amongst the Orthoptera also must be mentioned
the widely known Libellulida, or dragon fiies, which
are well represented in Victoria, many kinds being
of large size, whilst others, also with beautiful blue
and green bodies and transparent wing, are not
uncommon. The most beautiful species occur, how:
ever, in tropical Australia. That great scourge of
the gardener, the well-known Thrips, belongs to
this large group, as do also the much-dreaded
Termites, or white ants.
Amongst Veuroptera may be mentioned the Ant-
lion Myrmeleon.
The Hymenoptera are very numerous in Victoria,
foremost among them being the Ichneumonide, many
of which group are exceedingly useful to farmers,
and fruit growers, as some of these insects deposit
their eggs in the bodies of locusts, moths, and other
noxious insects. The “ Chalcid flies,” as also the
Proctotrypida, are also useful, these also depositing
their eggs in the bodies of other small insects, more
especially whilst in the larval state. Other kinds,
as the Cynipide and the Tenthredinide, or saw-flies,





108
ENTOMOLOGY.
Eucalypti, which they perforate with their beak-
like mouths. The pupa are to be found clinging on
to fences, trees, &c., and from these the perfect
insect is developed, the change taking place between
the setting of the sun and the advent of darkness.
A split forms along the back of the pupa, and out of
this slit the perfect insect may be seen to emerge, at
first with very short wings, which seem to harden in
a very short space of time, and by sunrise the insect
is ready to fly. This large Cicada is very interesting,
as it undoubtedly is the cause of the so-called
Manna, although the identity of the insect which
“makes” it has been questioned. The noise made
by the stridulations of these insects is sometimes
quite deafening. Many smaller kinds occur also in
our colony, but the Fulgoridæ are very few in num-
ber, and are small. Of the curious little Membracide
or Frog-hoppers, we have a number of kinds,
generally to be taken upon the young trees of the
various kinds of Eucalypti.
In Victoria the groups of the Aphide and Coccide
are unfortunately but too common, the majority of
them being introductions from Europe, America,
and elsewhere, although the indigenous kinds are,
without doubt, numerous.
I might perhaps enumerate the genera Kermes,
Pulvinaria, Eriococcus as those most destructive to
our native Eucalypti, whilst a great number of other
kinds of trees are infested with Aspidiotus, Lecanium,
Icerya, and a host of others, all of which are more
or less destructive, and most difficult of eradication.
The Coccidæ have been dealt with by Dr. Signoret,
Maskell, and many others, and remedies have been
devised and tested with more or less success.
I have thus briefly enumerated a few of the groups
of each order, and, in conclusion, may state that, as
a department of entomology has been created in








ENTOMOLOGY.
109
Melbourne, we may reasonably hope for more light
to be thrown on the life history at least of many of
the more important groups.
A handbook, with coloured illustrations of the
more important insects, showing the various stages
in their life histories, and indicating remedial
measures, &c., is now in course of preparation,
and will be issued by the Agricultural Department
as soon as possible.


BOTANY.
BY CHARLES A. TOPP, M.A., F.L.S.
In the following brief description of the Victorian
Flora I propose to mention the most noticeable
botanical features of some of the localities which will
probably be visited by members of the Australasian
Association for the Advancement of Science. No
attempt will be made to give an exhaustive enumera-
tion of the plants occurring even in the localities
selected, as both the limit of space and the character
of the Handbook would render such an attempt in-
appropriate and impracticable.
I shall endeavour then to characterise the prevail-
ing botanical features, first of the shores of Port
Phillip and of the district in its immediate vicinity,
where there are still remains of the native vegeta-
tion; next, I shall describe, in a similar manner, the
Flora of our ferntree gullies, such as may be found
in the Dandenong Range, and on the Main Dividing
Range, running into the Watts River and other
mountain streams; and, thirdly, a short account
will be given of the interesting alpine Flora occurring
in the north-eastern mountain system of the colony,
between Omeo and Harrietville, on the peaks and
spurs of Mounts Feathertop, Bogong, and Hotham.
Almost the whole of the eastern shore of Port
Phillip, from Brighton to Point Nepean, is fringed by
a belt of coast tea-tree (Leptospermum lovigatum),
which extends from within a few yards of high-water
mark generally for 50 or 100 yards inland, but in
some places spreads inwards for half a mile or more.
Occasionally rising above the nearly level tops of the


*
*
*











BOTANY.
115
say that the chief gully tree fern is the Dicksonia
billardierii (antarctica), the other tree ferns, Alsophila
australis and Cyathea cunninghami, preferring the
more open mountain slopes. In the shadiest water-
courses, however, the gigantic fronds and massive
trunks of the Osmunda babara (Todea africana) give
variety to the scene. In the drier and more open
gullies the tree-fern stems are brown and rough,
with numerous rootlets, but in the moister and
remoter ravines nearly the whole of this brown is
concealed by the lovely greens of epiphytal ferns and
of mosses; chief among these are Hymenophyllum
· nitens and javanicum, Trichomanes venosum, and
humile, Polypodium pustulatum, australe and grammi-
tidis, Asplenium flaccidum, Aspidium capense, while
on the more open water-courses the richly coloured
fronds of Lomaria capensis are mingled with the dark
green of Lomaria discolor and lanceolata, and of
Blechnum cartilaginium, and in the more open forest
the large light green fronds of Davallia dubia, and the
scaly stalks and robust fronds of Aspidium aculeatum
are conspicuous. The shining vestitute of green, in
which the fern trees of the moister forest glens are
clothed, is largely due to the delicate leaves of the
lovely mosses, such as Cyathophorum and others..
The alpine and subalpine Flora of Mounts Hotham
and Feathertop, and of the Dargo and Bogong
plateaux, with their stunted trees and bushes, mossy
peats and prostrate heath plants, presents a strong
contrast to the lofty forest trees and umbrageous
glens of the mountain valleys.
The only gums are Eucalyptus sieberiana (spurious
ironbark), E. pauciflora (one of the white gums), and
E. Gunnii (cider Eucalypt); these gradually becoming
more and more stunted, disappear on the highest
ridges. The myrtle family contributes two other
low trees or bushes, Kunzea muelleri, confined to


116
BOTANY.
alpine regions, and Callistemon salignus, familiar on
the banks of the Yarra. Drimys aromatica and
Pimelia axiflora, which have been already men-
tioned as found in the ferntree gully districts, also
occur on these high plateaux. Other plants familiar
to residents of Melbourne and its suburbs, OC-
curring in tlie Alps, are Ranunculus lappaceus,
Daviesia ulicina and corymbosa, Indigofera australis,
Helipterum incanum, Craspedia richea, Wahlenbergia
gracilis, Candollea graminifolia, Euphrasia brownii,
but many of the plants, though of familiar genera,
will be new species to the dweller on the lowlands,
and he will be struck by the fact that they are found
blooming in January, long after the flowers of their
generic associates of the plains have faded ; such, for
instance, are Ranunculus anemoneus, millani, and
gunnianus, the first-named the handsomest of our
Victorian buttercups, with large white flowers
Drosera arcturi, with comparatively large white
flowers, Brachycome nivalis, Epacris petrophylla, &c.
Of plants belonging to genera not met with on the
lowlands may be mentioned Caltha introloba, Scleran
thus mniaroides, Aciphylla glacialis, Orites lancifolia,
Abrotanella nivigera, Gaultiera hispida (with Will-
steinia vaccinacea, of Mount Baw Baw, the only
representatives in Australia of the true heath
family), Nageia alpina (the only representative of the
conifers on our mountain ranges).
It will be observed that nearly all our alpine plants
belong to genera and orders characteristic of the
Australian continent, and that comparatively few are
identical with species growing in the colder countries
of Europe, Asia, and America. A considerable number
are common to Victoria and Tasmania, and are not
found elsewhere. The following species found in our
Alps grow in the colder countries, or in the highlands
of most of the continents :-Winter-cress, or Yellow





'BOTANY.
117
Rocket (Borbarea vulgaris), Rock-cress (Arabis glabra),
Bitter-cress (Cardamine hirsuta), Pearlwort (Sagina
procumbens), Lady's Mantle (Alchemilla vulgaris),
Thyme-leaved Veronica (Veronica serpyllifolia), Portu-
laca oleracea, Water Chickweed (Montia fontana),
Carex canescens, and C. acuta, Fingered Panic
(Panicum sanguinale), Trisetum subspicatum, Sheep's
Fescue (Festuca durinscula), and a few others.
-


COMMERCE & MANUFACTURES.
B1 WM. H. THODEY.
I. COMMERCE
The admirable review of the commerce of Victoria,
annually presented to the public of Victoria by the
Government Statist in the “ Victorian Year Book,”
practically leaves nothing to be desired, so far as the
external features of the subject are concerned, and it
is unnecessary merely to epitomise that review. The
writer, therefore, does not propose to do more than
to supplement the Government Statist's work by a
few general considerations, and, by an analytic state-
ment, showing the directions in which the commerce
of Victoria is undergoing development or otherwise,
guiding himself throughout by the consideration that
a body like the Australasian Association for the Ad-
vancement of Science desires some kind of scientific
method to be followed in treating upon so complex
a subject as commerce.
It is difficult to assign to commerce its position in
the economy of a state without ascertaining its rela-
tions (1) from an industrial point of view, to the
manufacturing status of that state ; (2) from a com-
parative point of view, to the whole volume of trade,
including both internal and external operations;
and (3) from a financial point of view, to public and





120
COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURES.
.
(imports, £15,093,730; exports, £12,962,704), and
these 24 years may be again divided into a térm of
14 years before the discovery of gold, and one of 10
years after that event. The second period may be as
roughly taken as extending from 1861 (imports,
£13,532,452 ; exports, £13,828,606) to, say 1883
(imports, £17,743,846; exports, £16,398,863). This
period commenced under a free-trade regime, while
at its close a distinctively protective policy reigned.
Although the colony has always borrowed capital
from Britain, either by its Government or through
banking, squatting, and other institutions, the third
period dates approximately from 1884 (imports,
£19,201,633 ; exports, £16,050,465), and is still in
progress, the last completed year (1888) showing :
imports, £23,972,134 ; exports, £13,853,763. The
following is a summary of the imports, exports, and
excess of the former over the latter :-
3
ца
Ratio if
Excess of
Excess of
Imports. Exports.
Imports
Imports.
to
Exports.
£
+
First period,
1837 to 1860
(24 years) . 133,088,758 121,780,515 (11,308,243
28
Second period,
1861 to 1883
(23 years)
342,741,969 330,098,494 12,643,475 / 3.83
Third period,
not completed,
1884 to 1888
(5 years) . .
98,771,097| 68,602,452 30,168,645 43.97
It thus appears that for the last five years alone the
excess of imports over exports has absolutely been


122
COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURES.
Net Imports
and Manufacture
(which, however, will be shown further on to be
rather misleading), is as follows:--
Gross Imports .. .. .. ..
£23,972,134
Less Re-exports ..
3,497,130
£20,475,004
Exports of Produce and Manufacture
of the Colony (including all articles
partly or wholly made up of im.
ported materials) .. .. .. 10,356,633
Excess of Imports .. .. .. £10,118,371
But a recital of the statistics of Victorian com-
merce, culled from the annual returns of the colony,
gives only a superficial view of the subject matter.
The intrinsic value of the statistics may easily be
overrated, especially as values are often carelessly
assigned to imports and exports, while countries of
origin are frequently undescribed. There are two
articles of the first importance, viz., gold and wool,
in which negligence assumes proportions fatal, unless
detected, to a right understanding of the real export
trade, as distinguished from the re-export trade, of
the colony. In the case of gold and gold specie the
imports in 1888 amounted to £959,045, but the whole of
the exports, amounting to £3,690,519, were entered as
Victorian produce. Properly speaking, the difference
between the two amounts, £2,731,474, represents
Victorian produce, and this sum will be taken into
account later on. Again, in 1888 the quantity of
greasy wool imported in Victoria is stated in the
Customs returns at 58,378,279lbs., of the value of
£2,215,855, but the exports of greasy wool, described
as other than Victorian, amounted to 26,583,343lbs.,
valued at £1,243,332. Two large errors are at once
apparent:-1st. A quantity exceeding 58,000,000lbs.
shrinks into a quantity exceeding 26,000,000lbs., the
balance going to the credit of Victoria. 2nd. The
average price of the wool brought into the colony,





COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURES.
123
according to the declared value, was 9:11d. per lb., and
the average price of the same wool, when shipped from
the colony, was declared at 11:22d. per lb. The
obvious deduction is that the particulars published by
the Customs Department are so imperfect that room is
left for wide, albeit uncertain, allowances. Subject
to allowances for the tendency to error thus disclosed,
the task remains to investigate the movements in the
commerce of Victoria. Such an investigation may
be profitably made by adopting the method of com-
paring two annual returns ten years apart, say the
returns for 1878 and 1888. As mere totals, or even
a display of the movements which have occurred in
the principal articles, are of far less scientific and
economic value than a systematic analysis of the
whole, the writer has preferred to make an attempt
at exhaustiveness, adopting, so far as local cir-
cumstances will permit, the system of classification
employed by the Board of Trade. The figures which
follow will present-I. Net imports (i.e., imports less
re-exports), or, as expressed in the Customs returns,
“ Exports of British, foreign, and other colonial
produce and manufacture ;” II. Exports of Vic-
torian produce and manufactures only ; and III. The
relation of net imports and exports of Victorian pro-
duce and manufactures to population :-
I. NET IMPORTS (i.e., IMPORTS LESS “RE-EXPORTS”).
1878. 1888.
I. ANIMALS (living) · .. .. £590,564 £1,904,807
II. ARTICLES OF CONSUMPTION—
A. Food-
1 Cereals and Breadstuffs 422,573 265,319
2 Sugar ..
966,700 853,854
3 Other Vegetable Pro.
. ductions for Food, in-
cluding Preparations 165,063 391,901
4 Dairy Products .. 5,075 42,500
5 Animal Food Products
and Fish .. .. 124,192 241,690





COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURES.
125
The foregoing table shows, amongst other increases,
the following, viz.:-Living animals, £1,314,243
(222 per cent.); drink of all kinds, £544,003 (67
per cent.); coal, £266,151 (74 per cent.); timber,
£991,579 (169 per cent.); textile and other manu-
factures for personal wear, £1,128,855 (42 per cent.);
finished metals, machinery, manufactures of metal,
&c., £1,354,701 (125 per cent.).
In grouping the figures relating to exports of
Victorian produce and manufactures, the same form
is followed as that adopted for the imports.
II.—EXPORTS OF VICTORIAN PRODUCE AND Manu-
FACTURES :
1878. 1888.
I.-ANIMALS (living) .. .. £432,246 £269,004
II.-ARTICLES OF CONSUMPTION-
A. Food-
1 Cereals and Breadstuffs 341,167 950,659
2 Sugar ..
139,688 50,617
3 Other vegetable Produc-
tions for Food, includ.
ing Preparations ..
171,978
4 Dairy Products .. 67,350 69,843
5 Animal Food, Products,
and Fish .. ..
90,810 36,192
B. Drink-
6 Coffee, Cocoa, &c. ... 7,852 5,624
7 Intoxicants, &c.
13,074 61,244
C. Sundries-
8 Tobacco and Cigars ..
35
9 Sundry Articles for House-
hold Consumption .. 26,961 23,279
Total .. .. £811,100 £1,369,436
III.—MINERALS, &c.-
1 Coal and Coke ..
£486 £496
2 Sundry Crude Metals
and Minerals
67,598 3,354
Total .. .. £68,084 £3,850
124.1





COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURES.
127
ond
E
£
III.-NETT IMPORTS AND EXPORTS OF VICTORIAN
PRODUCE AND MANUFACTURES PER HEAD OF MEAN Popu-
LATION :-
Exports of
Victorian produce
Nett imports.
manufactures.
1878. 1888. 1878. 1888.
£
Living animals
../0•719 1.793 10.526 10.253
Vegetable productions for food 1.892 1.422 0.737 1.105
Animal productions for food
(exclusive of living animals) |
0.157
0.267 0.192 0.099
Drink of all kinds .. .. 0.990 1.277 0.025 0.063
All articles of consumption
(exclusive of living animals) 3.193 3.307 0.988 1.289
Coal, coke, minerals, and
crude metals .. ..
0.489 0.623 0.083 0.004
Chemicals, drugs, &c. .. 0.229 0.278 0.015 0·013
Oils, paints, &c. .. ..0322 0.351 0.026 0.003
Crude vegetable products .. 0.195 0.159 0.143 0-177
Crude animal products .. 0.154 10.205 0.191 0:378
Building materials (princi.
pally timber) . . . 0.714 1.486 0.016 0.021
Textile and other manufac-
tures for personal wear .. | 3.215 3.548 0.335 0.153
Finished metals, machinery, |
manufactures of metals, &c. 1.325 2.300 0.160 0.107
Other manufactured articles 1.514 2.697 0.269 0.177
Total manufactured articles 16.054 8.545 0.764 10.437
Total of nett imports per head
of mean population .. 12:348 17.110
Add to Exports-
1. Excess of wool exported
over wool imported
(£3,447,451 in 1878,
£2,466,870 in 1888)..
4.1992.322
2. Excess of gold and spe-
cie exported over gold
and specie imported
(£2,893,625 in 1878,
£2,675,263 in 1888) ..
Total export of Victorian
produce and manufactures
per head of mean popula-
tion
- 10.841 7.581
3-524 2.519








132
COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURES.
1. Machines, tools, and implements, 9151 ; 2. Dress,
8783; 3. Vegetable matters (including saw-mills),
6558; 4. Stone, clay, and glass, 6040; 5. Books
and stationery (including printing establishments),
5188; 6. Carriages and harness, 3614; 7. Drinks and
stimulants, 3506; 8. Animal matters, 2467 ; 9.
Vegetable food, 2431; 10. Furniture, 2030; 11.
Textile fabrics (woollen mills), 841; 12. Coal and
lighting, 773; 13. Houses and buildings, 693; 14.
Chemicals, 691 ; 15. Fibrous materials, 455 ; 16.
Animal food, 443; 17. Gold, silver, and precious
stones, 385 ; 18. Ships and boats, 213; 19. Metals,
other than gold and silver, 182; 20. Carving,
engraving, &c., 141 ; 21. Arms, ammunition, &c.,
104 ; 22. Musical instruments, &c., 50; 23. Water
(in manufactures), 50; 24. Philosophical instru-
ments, &c., 33. Second-Description of manufac-
tory, work, &c., according to value of machinery and
plant engaged:41. Coal and lighting (gas and electric
works), £1,525,812; 2. Machines, tools, and imple-
ments, £749,782; 3. Drinks and stimulants,
£544,657 ; 4. Vegetable matters, £527,894; 5.
Vegetable food, £414,717; 6. Books and stationery,
£407,529; 7. Stone, clay, and glass, £363,512; 8.
Animal matters, £207,224; 9. Textile fabrics
(woollen mills), £156,136 ; 10. Dress, £104,603; 11.
Carriages and harness, £94,791 ; 12. Ships and
boats, £66,425 ; 13. Fibrous materials, £62,715; 14.
Furniture, £55,668; 15. Chemicals, £50,820; 16.
Gold, silver, and precious stones, £45,160; 17.
Arms, ammunition, &c., £29,560; 18. Water (in
manufactories), £29,550; 19. Metals, other than
gold and silver, £28,690 ; 20. Animal food, £25,984;
21. Houses and buildings, £14,226; 22. Carving,
engraving, &c., £13,670 ; 23. Musical instruments,
&c., £4550 ; 24. Philosophical instruments, &c.,
£1650. The total value of machinery and plant








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