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Show 1870.] MR. G. KREFFT ON CERATODUS FORSTERI. 223 nostrils just below the upper lip, communicating by a short tube with the roof of the mouth. The skeleton is partly ossified, partly cartilaginous, the vertebras being pure cartilage, and the ribs hollow tubes filled with a cartilaginous substance. The palate and upper part of the skull are bone, and the head is covered with two enormous scales. The tongue is very small, and attached to what I believe to be a large hyoid bone ossified externally. The rays which support the dorsal and caudal fins consist of two or more quill-like hollow tubes filled with and held together by cartilage. Numerous rays branch off from the limbs, forming broad flappers, which have some resemblance to those of a Porpoise, but are covered with small scales. The teeth are very interesting; and the dental plates will be found in form (and substance, probably, also) to approach the teeth of the genus with which I have provisionally classed this animal. The incisors are two, restricted to the upper jaw; they are flat, slightly bent, with the upper front margin cut away and the hinder one denticulated. A little behind the incisors the first and largest limb of the dental plate appears ; it is almost parallel with the palate; the second joint or limb branches outward, being smaller than the first, and so on to the sixth and last, which is only half the size of the fifth. The inner margin of the dental plate is rounded off; and the two together form a triangle (if a line is drawn at their base) with serrated outer sides. The lower jaw (fig. 2) is provided with corresponding plates ; the incisor teeth are wanting, and the two rami are only joined by tough skin. The opening of the mouth is not very large; and the jaws appear to work in a curious manner, which is best described by working two sections of a cog-wheel horizontally, one down upon the other, to which motion the flexibility of the lower jaw appears to be well adapted. This short description of one of the most interesting animals ever discovered in Australia must suffice at present. I have no doubt that many and better accounts will be given of it when well-preserved spirit-specimens have come to hand. Postscript.-It is strange that a curious creature like this, which was well known to the early settlers at Wide Bay and other Queensland districts, should so long have escaped the eyes of those interested in natural history. I remember that M r . William Forster mentioned a "fish" with cartilaginous backbone years ago, and that I expressed an opinion that he must be mistaken. This animal is excellent eating, has Salmon-coloured flesh, and at certain seasons will rise to a fly; so that the northern squatters have named it the Burnett or Dawson Salmon, from its habits and from the rivers in which it is principally found. The poor bush-cooks who dressed these "Salmons" could have made a small fortune, had they preserved the heads and sent them to Sydney. It is only during certain seasons that this amphibian takes bait; at other times it cannot be induced even to nibble. I think, however, that during this latter period the animals are buried in the |
