FISH AND FISHERIES. 71 



particles from the mud which they swallow and on which they live. Wlien the 

 I^eriod at length arrives for the mature fish to go to the sea preparatory to 

 spawning, the instinct which actuates them seems to be irresistiV)le. In one 

 instance some years ago, when Tuggerah beach lake was for a time shut up at its 

 sea mouth, the mullet pressed in such masses in the direction in which the outlet 

 should have been that thousands of them were forced up on the land and perished. 

 An occuiTence of the same kind is mentioned as having happened at Latw 

 lUawarra under similar circumstances. It is doubtful how long it is between tr 

 rush of the fish to the sea and their re-entrance into the same or other rivers ; the 

 belief is that the time is very short, that the movement is only from one opening 

 of the coast to another, and always from south to north. There can be little 

 doubt that the fish after spawning find their way back to their old haunts, but 

 they have very seldom been seen so returning. The spent fish are for a time 

 unfit for food, but they improve in condition very rapidly. The only instrument 

 of capture used for the mullet is the seine net. The range of the species is from 

 the Gippsland lakes on the south up to Brisbane on the north. 



The flat-tail mullet is also a very good fish, but has neither the size nor the 

 extreme excellence of the sea mullet. It appears also at the end of summer or 

 beginning of winter and spawns in our bays and creeks, but the shoals are never 

 of the same enormous size as are common with the other. 



The other species {M. dohula) is, except at the schooling season, almost a fresh- 

 water fish, living as high up the streams as it can get, but it cannot, like the 

 European salmon, pass up rapids or falls. It is a good fish, but inferior to both 

 the others. The term " hard-gut mullet" is sometimes applied to this species, 

 but more frequently the fishermen apply that name to immature specimens of the 

 " sea mullet. " It is sometimes taken by the hook. 



The "sand mullet" {Myxiis elongatus) seldom exceeds 7 or 8 inches in length, 

 and, though no doubt excellent eating as are all the family, is looked upon as 

 too small for the market. — K.R.C. 



The Sea Mullet. 



(Plate XXX.) 



A figure of Mugil grandis, Castelnau, is given as it is a fish which 

 may become of more commercial importance than any other. The 

 obsei'vations of Mr. Edw. Hill are here inserted, with a little alteration. 



" There are several varieties in this Colony, but the one to which 

 especial reference is made may be readily identified by its size and obesity, 

 as also by the numbers which are brought into the market at a time, by 

 boat-loads and cart-loads, and usually at this particular season, when 

 they are so much needed. These fishes come from the south, and go as 

 far north and east as Navigator Islands, and enter the bays and harbours 

 of this coast from February to April.* In Mai-ch, however, they visit 

 Botany Bay, Sydney Harbour, and Broken Bay, sooner or later in this 

 month, and as a rule may be looked for after every southerly gale or 

 easterly bad weather. As these fishes are then full-roed, no doubt they 

 are migrating for the purpose of spawning, and keep together in large 

 shoals, at times covering acres, and when they do arrive great attention 

 is bestowed on their movements by professional fishermen, both late and 

 early, and if a chance is offered by their coming into water sufficiently 

 shoal they are surrounded by a net, and sometimes double-banked by 

 net after net, at which times thousands are captured. These fishes at 



* This is not quite correct. The Australian species have only been seen between 

 Gippsland and Brisbane. The one referred to as seen off the Pacific Islands is 

 another species. The fish cannot live long without the mud from which it derives 

 its food. 



