PISH AND riSHEEIES. 57 



In 1875 tlie writer went out with fishermen into D'Entrecasteaux's 

 Channel in a small whaleboat with a fish-well in the centre. In the 

 middle of the channel a fine shoal of barracouta was met. They 

 seemed to be following a mass of fish spawn or young fry, of which we 

 found quantities in their stomachs. We caught in a few hours as much 

 as the boat would hold, probably some seventy or eighty fish from 3 to 4 

 feet long. Our mode of procedure was this : — Each had a small stout 

 stick about 5 or 6 feet long and an inch thick ; to this was fastened a 

 yard of log-line and at the end a square piece of cedar an inch thick 

 and two or three long. The hook was fastened firmly on this so as 

 to leave the barb projecting. A little piece of green hide was on the 

 hook. All that we had to do was to splash and beat the water with the 

 stick, pulling the line backwards and forwards, and after two or three 

 turns if the movement was brisk and the splash considerable it was 

 seized by a fish. The exertion of pulling it out of the water was great, 

 as none weighed less than 6 lbs. and they were oftener lOIbs. in weight. 

 They had to be lifted clean up into the air and swung into the boat. 

 We were always going fast through the water, and it may be supposed 

 that the movement and the splash made a good imitation of the efibrts 

 of smaller fish when trying to escape from the remorseless Thyrsites 

 atun. One can scarcely imagine more interesting sport or harder work 

 than a day's fishing in this style for barracouta, 



DIV. XIII.— COTTO-SCOMBEIFORM ACANTHOP- 



TERYGIANS. 



Fam. CARANGID^. 



The first family in this division which need occupy our attention is 

 the Garangidoe or Horse Mackerels, which are carnivorous fishes of 

 tropical and temperate seas. 



Body more or less compressed, oblong, or elevated, covered with small 

 scales or naked, eye lateral. Teeth, none or conical. Spinous dorsal 

 less developed than the soft or anal, either continuous with or separated 

 from the soft portion or rudimentary ; ventrals thoracic or rudimentary 

 or absent. No prominent papillaj near the vent. Gill opening wide. 

 Ten abdominal and fourteen caudal vertebrae. Fishes of tropical and 

 temperate seas. 



Many of the fishes of this large family are in appearance and habit very 

 like the more typical of the Scombridce. There are very many species in Aus- 

 tralian waters, their numbers increasing rapidly towards the warmer seas of tlie 

 north. Those best known to the fishermen of Port Jackson are — the "yellow- 

 tail" (Trachimis decUvis), the '^ white tvevally" (Caranx gi'Oi'ijianns), the "king- 

 fish" {Seriola lalandii), the "Samson-fish" (Seriola hqypos), and "the tailor" 

 (Temnodon saltator). The first of these, the "yellow-tail," is almost if not quite 

 identical with the "horse mackerel" of Europe {Trachurus trachurus). In the 

 young state it is abundant at all times in Port Jackson, and is in great demand for 

 bait. The adult fish is seldom seen in the harbour, but is said to pass along the 

 coast in lai'ge shoals at or about midsummer. It is most probable that this fish 

 spawns in the inlets and harbours of the coast, from the fact that the young fish 

 of 5 to 6 inches in length are always to be found in such localities. The very 

 young fry have a most extraordinary and ingenious way of providing for their 

 safety and nutrition at the same time ; they take up their quarters inside the 

 umbrella of the large meduste, where they are safe from- their enemies, and are, 

 without any exertion on tlieir part, supplied with the minute organisms which 

 constitute their food by the constant current kept uj) by the action of the curtain- 

 looking cilia of the animal. 



