or Sydney, many hundreds of baskets are sent away; but they
barely pay the cost of freight and commission, I believe. There are
several varieties of sea-mullet, one or two of which will take the hook
freely, and I have often caught them off the rocky coast of New South
Wales with a rod when the sea has been smooth. The arrival of the big
sea-mullet denotes that the season for jew-fish is at its height; and if
the stranger to Australian waters wants exciting sport let him try
jew-fishing at night. In deep water off the coast these great fish are
occasionally caught during daylight, but a dull, cloudy night is best,
when they may be caught from the beach or river bank in shallow water.
Very stout lines and heavy hooks are used, for a 90-lb. or l00-lb.
jew-fish is very common. Baiting with a whole mullet or whiting, or one
of the tentacles of an octopus, the most amateurish fisherman cannot
fail to hook two or three jew-fish in a night. (Even in Sydney harbour I
have seen some very large ones caught by people fishing from ferry
wharves.) They are very powerful, and also very game, and when they rise
to the surface make a terrific splashing. At one place on the Hastings
River, called Blackman's Point, a party of four of us took thirteen
fish, the heaviest of which was 42 lbs. and the lightest 9 lbs. Next
morning, however, the Blackman's Point ferryman, who always set a line
from his punt when he turned in, showed us one of over 70 lbs. When they
grow to such a size as this they are not eaten locally, as the flesh is
very often full of thin, thread-like worms. The young fish, however, are
very palatable.

The saw-fish, to which I have before alluded as harrying the swarms of
sea-salmon, also make havoc with the jew-fish, and very often are caught
on jew-fish lines. They are terrible customers to get foul of (I do not
confound them with the sword-fish) when fishing from a small boat. Their
huge bone bill, set on both sides with its terrible sharp spikes, their
great length, and enormous strength, render it impossible to even get
them alongside, and there is no help for it but either to cut the line
or pull up anchor and land the creature on the shore. Even then the task
of despatching one of these fish is no child's play on a dark night, for
they lash their long tails about with such fury that a broken leg might
be the result of coming too close. In the rivers of Northern Queensland
the saw-fish attain an enormous size, and th