Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 5 (1901).djvu/288

262 River, but were certainly never there before. I think their presence can be accounted for by the action of a squatter on the Upper Minilya River, Mr. M.C.R. Bunbury, who wrote a letter to the 'Western Mail' of April 22nd, stating that in the winter of 1899 he brought a number of small fish from the Lyons River (which runs into the Gascoyne), and turned them into the Minilya, where they soon spread. The Lyndon River runs west parallel to the Minilya about twenty miles more or less to the north. Both rivers (when they do run) empty into the vast saltmarshes near the coast, but, so far as is known, do not reach the sea. The Cardabia Creek is a tributary of the Lyndon, and during the floods the fish must have come down the Minilya from Mr. Bunbury's house to the marsh, about ninety miles, then swam up to the Lyndon, about thirty miles, and thence up it and its branches. Unless they have the power of living under the dry mud, like the fresh-water Turtles and Frogs, they must all die when the pools dry up, as they are not permanent; but perhaps the spawn will serve to propagate the species.