om the very great extent of waste and
unoccupied land, where snakes could breed undisturbed, they were brought
down in vast numbers to the inhabited parts of the island by the flooded
streams and rivers; but it now becomes a question, when so much more of
the island is occupied, whether our local legislature might not wisely
renew the offer of a moderate reward for the destruction of these
obnoxious and much dreaded reptiles.

Lizards and frogs, of various species, are common, but possess no
peculiar interest. A species of turtle has been occasionally washed
ashore upon the east coast, brought, no doubt, from the east coast of
New Holland by the current which sets from that direction towards Van
Diemen's Land.

SECTION V.--INSECTS.

No work on the entomology of Tasmania has yet appeared, although few
countries offer a wider or better field to the zealous entomologist, and
it possesses many most interesting species.[273]

There is a great preponderance of _Coleoptera_ over the other orders.
Some European forms are common; and several species, as the weevil,
apple aphis, slug, &c., have been introduced, and prove most injurious,
as they increase with unusual rapidity. The domestic bee was brought to
Van Diemen's Land from England by Dr. T. B. Wilson, R.N., in the year
1834; and so admirably does the climate of this island suit this
interesting insect that in the first year sixteen swarms were produced
from the imported hive! Since that time they have been distributed all
over the island, and have been sent to all the adjoining colonies; all
those in Australia having been derived from the one hive. In Tasmania
they are becoming wild in great numbers, spreading themselves rapidly
through all the forests, even to the summits of the western mountains.

SECTION VI.--MOLLUSCA.

Of the mollusca inhabiting the shores of the island many are highly
interesting, and several are very beautiful. The rare _Cypraea
umbilicata_ (Sowerby) inhabits Bass' Strait, as also _Trigonia
margaritacea_ (Lam.), _Valuta papillaris_ (Swainson), _Venus lamellata_
(Lam.), _Crassatella kingicola_ (Lam.), _solenimya Australis_ (Lam.), a
species of _Terebratula_, and many others most interesting to the
conchologist, and not less so to the geologist, as some forms are now
found living abundantly in the Australian seas which are only known in
the old world as occurring in a fossil state.

Our Argonaut, or paper nautilus (_A. tuberculosa_, Lam.), is