458 RESULTS OF TRAWL FISHING OUTSIDE PORT JACKSON, 



shoals of mackerel, tailor, king-fish, trevally, and yellow tail. We 

 might catch mullet — a fish equal to the salmon — in any quantity, 

 if we had a market for it. We have whiting, garfish, schnapper, 

 morwhong, Jew fish, sole, skate, John Dorey, and in fact good 

 representatives of all the best kinds of Fishes in the world. It has 

 always been inexplicable to me, how men of intelligence should 

 deliberately shut their eyes and ears to such facts as these, and 

 advocate the introduction from distant places of fishes which a 

 bountiful nature has already amply supplied us with. And even 

 if we had our seas as full of Clnpea harengus, as they are now of 

 Clupea sagax, of what use would it be, the schnapper line would 

 be as useless to catch them, as the shallow seine net, and beyond 

 these miserable appliances our fishermen seem incapable of going. 

 It is however, gratifying to know that efforts towards improvement 

 in fishing appliances are being made by the Commissioners of 

 Fisheries. Lt is in this way, much more than by enforcing useless 

 provisions in Acts of Parliament, that they have it in their power 

 to confer lasting benefits on the country, and it is much to be 

 regretted that their efforts are not more liberally aided by the 

 Government than they are. 



This Paper is, as its heading implies, a statement of the results 

 of a trial made of a Beam Trawl a few weeks ago by order of the 

 Commissioners, and it is to Dr. Cox, the President of the 

 Commission that I am indebted for the information I am now 

 enabled to give. 



The Trawl was of the kind used at Grimsby, but made I believe 

 here ; a steamer was supplied by Government, and the trial was 

 intended to occupy one week. The results were disappointing as 

 regards the amount of work done, but that seems to have been due 

 entirely to the severity of the weather, and the unfitness of the 

 steamer for a heavy sea. 



The Trawl was only put over the side twice during the week, 

 and then only for an hour or two, so that the actual amount of 

 ground trawled over was very small. 



The following minutes of the actual results have been furnished 

 to me by Dr. Cox — " November 26th. Trawl put down six miles 



