312 THE GREAT BARRIER REEF. 



purpose, and would surely be an improvement on the casks of salted ling, imported and 

 consumed through the length and breadth of the colony. So little are the natural resources of the 

 indigenous Queensland fish-fauna turned to account that, on a recent visit to Thursday Island, the 

 author found that smoked fish, cured by an enterprising Manilla man, were being imported 

 in quantities from New Guinea, for the use of the crews of the Torres Strait pearling fleets. 

 Trevallies, Polynemi, Grey-Mullets, King-fish (Cybium), Drepane, and Chorinemus represented 

 the leading forms, equally abundant in Queensland's home waters, which were thus being 

 imported from the territory in process of redemption from barbarity. 



The giant herrings, Chaiios salnwiicus and Mcgalops cypriiioides, are referred to in the preceding 

 chapter as being so highly valued in India, that they are thought worthy of culture in tanks, for 

 the food supply of the wealthier classes. The young of the last-named species, more particularly, 

 abound in the fresh- and brackish-water lagoons in the vicinity of Townsville, and might easily 

 be there made the object of practical experiment. Among other fish of superior esculent qualities, 

 the tassel-fishes, Polynemi, are qualified to hold high rank; and one species in particular, P. tetra- 

 dactylus, on account of its excellent flavour, has won for itself the local name of salmon. These 

 Polynemi, moreover, as previously remarked, are highly valued in India, on account of the 

 considerable and excellent quality of the isinglass they produce ; and they are thus doubly 

 worthy of attention. A fish, Psettodes erumei, allied to, and fitted to take the place of, the 

 English brill or turbot, is, as shown on a previous page, a denizen of Queensland waters 

 hitherto overlooked. 



In the matter of fish more suitable for relishes than for substantial food, anchovies of 

 various descriptions abound, including one species, Engraulis nasittus, that is much prized in 

 the Malay Archipelago for the production of the famous condiment " Red-fish," or, in the Malay 

 language, " Ikan Merah." A fish closely allied to the famous " Bummaloe fish," or "Bombay 

 duck," Harpodon nchtrais, and eligible lor similar preparation as a curry adjunct, is ready to hand 

 in the smelt-like species, Saitrida argcntca, collected by the author at numerous stations on the 

 north-east coast-line, and figured in Plate XLVI., Fig 3. 



In yet another direction, there exists an almost unlimited field for the more profitable 

 utilisation of the rich fish-fauna of Queensland. Attention is here directed to the circumstance 

 that in the shark tribe, including the sharks, skates, and rays, so abundantly represented in 

 Queensland waters, there exist the raw materials for several highly remunerative industries. 

 Dried sharks' fins, throughout India, China, and the East, form a very important commercial 

 staple, the value of this product exported during a single year, from Kurrachee alone, varying, 

 according to published statistics, from between 15,000 to 18,000 rupees. The carcases of 

 sharks, furthermore, form a splendid manure. The smaller varieties, chiefly Galeus, Mustelus, 

 and Acanthias, are extensively used in this manner for the fruit orchards of Tasmania, and 

 fetch from 30s. to 40s. per ton. A similar use might doubtless be profitably made of the 



