36 NEW SOUTH WALES 



!By many it is said that if eaten perfectly fresh there is no clanger in 

 making use of it, as it is one of the most abimdant food fishes in the 

 Colony of Victoria. It is sold in great quantities by the hawkers round 

 the suburbs of Melbourne. At best it is but a poor fish for the table, 

 yet, strange to say, there is considerable difierence in this respect 

 between what is caught in Port Phillip and on our seaboard : with 

 us it is considered to be one of the worst of food fishes and scarcely 

 palatable. Prof. McCoy* says, of the Victorian Arrijns : — "Nearly 

 all the cases of fish-poisoning in Victoria are referable to this species. 

 Some persons are under the impression that the bad consequences 

 are due to incipient decomposition ; but I am certain that this is 

 not always the case, as I have known several instances in which 

 the effects were strongly marked after eating perfectly fresh examples, 

 caught only an hour or so before cooking. It is curious that only 

 at certain times, and to certain people, that this fish is more or 

 less poisonous, while certainly good for food under other circum- 

 stances not yet understood. I have known three out of five people 

 made seriously ill from eating at breakfast newly caught fish from 

 one basket, and the two others felt no inconvenience whatever. The 

 symptoms are generally a few hours after eating, an extraordinary 

 redness or flush of the skin, particularly of the face, often followed by 

 an eruption, which soon passes away, with great derangement of the 

 digestive organs, headache, vomiting, &c. Some cases of death have 

 been reported, but generally the bad symptoms pass away in a few 

 hours or days. Dr. Youl, the city Coroner for many years, infoi'ms me 

 that though he has seen many of these cases of fish-poisoning, the 

 deaths reported were found by the Jury to be due to other causes. The 

 flesh has often a dull pinkish tinge, which may be one of the reasons for 

 the popular application of the names of ' salmon ' and ' salmon trout ' 

 to this fish, which does not resemble the true salmon in any important 

 respect. " It seems to "school" about the latter end of summer, when 

 shoals of astonishing magnitude annually visit our shores. It is the 

 A. triMacevs of Cuvier and Valenciennes, and is on the whole a large 

 and beautiful fish. 



Mr. Macleay is of opinion that its evil reputation has arisen from the 

 rapidity with which it decomposes after capture. It is said to commence 

 to spawn in September on the east coast. The fry are unknown, as the 

 young are developed into the so-called trout form when they come into 

 the bay. They are caught with the net and line. There is much 

 variation in the colours of the young. 



Of late years some fishermen of our port have been trying to devise 

 a drift or purse net for this fish, which sometimes commands as much as 

 4s. a dozen. They have not as yet succeeded. 



In this family (Percidce) are included some of our fresh-water fishes. 

 It will however be more convenient for the purposes of this volume if 

 they are treated altogether in a subsequent chapter. 



* Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria. Decade II., p. 22. 



