Cirrostomi.

Body elongate, compresscd, scaleless, limbless. Mouth a longitudinal fissure, with subrigid cirri on each side, inferior. Vent at a short distance from the extremity of the tail. A low rayless fin-like fold runs along the back, round the tail, past the vent, to the respiratory aperture. Eye rudimentary. Liver reduced to a blind sack of the simple intestine. One genus only occupying the lowest scale in the class of vertebrata.' Found imbedded in sand on many coasts of the temperate regions of both hemispheres.

Branchiostoma lanceolatum.

Dredged in Bass's Straits by H.M.S. " Herald," at a depth of from 10 to 12 fathoms.

This brings the list of recent Australian fishes to a close.

The new species which have been described during the last few years are not included in it because the literature is not at my command, but all fresh discoveries will be added should the present work reach a second edition.

It is very important to know the animals of a country, and in particular the useful ones, because some men starve in the midst of plenty, property is sacrificed, and great enterprises are brought to a disastrous termination through the pioneer's ignorance of the natural products. The fresh-water fishes, always valuable in aboriginal economy, are constantly overlooked, and little is known of them beyond the coast districts. Leichhardt discovered fine eating fishes in the Burdekin more than twenty years ago; since then thousands of pounds have been expended for the importation of trout, tench, and carp, whilst the superior fishes of our own rivers are forgotten. The famous " devonian" fish, Ceratodus Forsteri, was made known to the outer world in May last, though both settlers and aborigines feasted on it years before. A second species^* was found by Mr. Buchanan, of Maryborough, shortly afterwards; and Mr. George Masters obtained no less than nineteen fine specimens during his last expedition to the Burnett.

It is indeed wonderful how every pool and creek teems with animal life; numerous muscles, various kinds of cray-fish, turtles, frogs, lizards, fresh-water snakes, and other creatures, can be caught without much trouble, and all these are more nourishing to a starving human being than the wretched nardoo, on which the lamented Burke and Wills tried to subsist.

More attention should be paid to the study of natural history in our schools, the establishment of district museums encouraged, and the children taught to observe the habits and economy of different animals, in particular those which are useful, by which means the wealth of the country would be much increased.

I regret that this paper is not more attractive to the general reader, but time and space are precious; it is only the outline of a complete natural history of Australian Vertebrata, the first ever published, and to be fully wrought out at no very distant period.