124 RECORDS OF THE AUKTRAMaN MUSEUM. 



Friday, the 15th October, 1915, they were nearly submerged 

 by tlie freshes on the I'iver, caused by the rain on the two 

 previous days and it was not until the 19th October that the 

 water had subsided enough to take the accompanying photo- 

 graphs, which will give one a better idea of them than pages 

 of description. One can trace these structures, more or less 

 in a state of disrepair, except those shown in Plates xxiv., 

 XXV., and xxvi., which are the only ones at present being 

 worked, for about three hundred yards, the upper por- 

 tion terminating a little below the Chinamens' garden on the 

 western bank. Another picture taken below Plate xxiv., com- 

 pletes the principal j)art of " The Fisheries," as they now 

 stand. Tliese fish-traps or "yards" are principally of irregu- 

 lar shape, chiefly of bent elongate-pear form, while others are 

 oval or nearly circular and three or four, or more, are often 

 constructed together and attached again to a long wall of stones 

 which extend in some instances nearly across the river. The 

 walls of the traps are formed entirely of stones, some are very 

 large, as will be seen by the photographs, but the greater part 

 average from nine to eighteen inches in diameter, a hole being 

 left at the widest part of each trap for the fish to enter, which 

 they usually do when swimming up stream, many others being 

 cauo-Iit in them when the river is in flood, but which of course 

 could only be taken when the river had subsided. At the 

 tiTiie of my visit there was only one pure blooded aboriginal 

 wa.tching the traps, who lived in a frail erection on the rivei- 

 bank, only a few yards away from them. He informed me 

 that he belonged to the Cobai' tribe, was sixty-seven yeens of 

 age, and known as " Steve Shaw " ; had a wife in the Brewarrina 

 Aboriginal Mission Station, where he had been until eight 

 weeks before. I visited him everyday, in tlie early morning, 

 but usually he had examined the "yards " before I got there, 

 at the first break of day. Formerly the entrance hole in the 

 wall was plugged with one or more stones, and a small meshed 

 )'ound net was used in catching the fish in the ti-ap. Now the 

 esrress was blocked with a small wire covered iron wheel, and 

 the lengthened deep purse-like net, wherein to put the fish, 

 and if necessary, keep them alive, was made of the ordinai'v 

 galvanised meshed fencing wire. His modns operandi after 

 closiiisr the hole in the wall, which was generallv in the widest 

 part of the trap, and in the deepest water, was to poke about 

 the trap, usually at the sides and among the stones, with a 



