14 MEMOIRS OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM. 



ACACIA SP. 



'' WAKA," Normanton, N.Q. 



Greshoff records the use of Acacia and allied genera as fish-poisons in 

 Burma and elsewhere, and Maiden mentions three species of Acacia as so used, 

 viz.: — Acacia fulcata, Willd., " Wee-Tjellan"; Acacia penninervis, Sieb. ; Acacia 

 salicina, var. varians. 



Broekmann, in his "Keport on the Exploration of North-West Kimberley, " 

 says of the natives: " With the coarse grass and wattle-bark they make what 

 looks like an enormous straw bottle ; the inside of this they fill with the bark 

 obtained from the root of a shrub which grows along the banks of the rivers, and 

 Avhich is known on the Fitzroy as 'Majalla, ' and then drag it backwards and 

 forwards through the pool, the result being that the fish become stupefied and 

 come to the surface, and they are easily caught. AVh ether the stupefying eflEect 

 is due to the bark or to the stirring-up of the mud Dr. House does not know; 

 probably both are factors in the case. ' '^* 



Our own experiments with water nuiddied with suspeiLsion of clay show 

 that such factor, beyond inducing slight abnormality of behaviour, is inoperative. 

 Mr. T. Welsby, indeed, in his book on " Sehnappering" (Brisbane, 1905), makes 

 reference to a native mode of catching fish by muddying w^ater with a greasy 

 greyish-blue clay, and driving towards a specially prepared dam, when, rising 

 gasping to the surface, they were taken. With the experience of the non-effect 

 of mere " muddying," however, we are inclined to attribute the apparent success 

 of the practice rather to the mechanical disturbance due to the invasion and 

 beating of the water by the large number of fishermen. Similarly, in the 

 occasionally observed mortality among fish in turbid flood-waters, the muddiness 

 must be considered an insignificant contributing factor, the true cause probably 

 lying in de-oxygenation of the stream Avaters by washing in large quantities of 

 oxygen-absorbing material. ^^ In the instance quoted the use of wattle-bark may 

 have had an adjuvant effect, though the " Majalla" must probably be regarded as 

 the effective substance. . 



Certain species of Acacia are known to be rich in tannin and to be saponin- 

 containing, the development of the latter occurring principally in the seeds and 

 pods.'" Greshoff states that the species likely to be most effective are those rich 

 in tannin and bearing saponaceous seed-pods. The specimen contained 3 per cent, 

 of tannin, and had but slight physiological action at concentration 1 : 1,000. 



Order COMBEETACE^. 

 terminalia sericocarpa, f. v. m. 



DAMSON PLXTM, Proserpine District. 



Test experiments demonstrate the bark of T. scricocarpa to be a fish-poison 

 of lesser effectivity, producing death in sufficient concentration. T. laurinoides 

 and T. tornentosa, on the authority of Greshoff', were used for the purpose else- 

 where {Liotarcl, Elliot Watt). No toxic principle other than tannin, of which 

 8 per cent, is present, could be demonstrated. 



^^0^34 Brockman, F.S., Report on Exploration of North-West Kimberley, 1901, Perth 1902 

 Extract from Appendix C by F. M. House, p. IS. 



^Y*"-: 35 Vide Allgem. Fischerei Ztg. 35, 353-6, 373, 4 ; Chem. Abstracts, vol. vi., 1912, p. 903 

 3® Seed-pods of an Acacia were forwarded by G. F. Hill from Darwin, N.T. (probably 

 A. holocarpa). The material possessed slight hsemolytic power, and proved slowly fatal to fish 

 in somewhat increased concentration. 



