106 INLETS AND OFFING FISHERIES — THEIR CORRELATION. 



be at some disadvantage ; and much that I have to say will have to be 

 accepted by him, if at all, in faith. But he may be assured at ail events on 

 this point that what I shall ask him to believe will be derived from my own 

 personal knowledge, acquired during a course of more than twenty years of 

 coastal visitation, mostly out of the track of the intercolonial steamer, the 

 timber ketch, and the newspaper reporter concerning the offing fisheries of 

 the Colony. Then, I submit for the consideration of those who know, or 

 care to know, something about their origin, and their prospects, as sources 

 of supply for a large market, this proposition : The capability of any given 

 schnapper ground, wherever situated on our coast, is measurable by its 

 proximity to one or more inlets possessing tolerably deep and quiet waters, 

 and not liable to be scoured by floods, or to have their salt-water converted 

 into brackish by the contributions of rivers having their rise in the main 

 range. It must, of course, be understood that this proposition has reference 

 exclusively to the schnapper. The perches, the mullets, the flathead, the 

 jew fish, the tailor, the black fish, and other forms of our edible fishes, have 

 no antipathy to brackish water, but the schnapper in every stage of 

 growth avoids it as if it were a poisonous environment. The occurrence of 

 a flood in the Hawkesbury regularly means the exodus of the red bream, not 

 only from the river and its embrochure, but for such a distance therefrom as 

 may bring them to water of the necessary salinity. This statement may 

 seem strange to those who know that flood-water, owing to its %{naller 

 specific gravity, floats over the Salter water into which it is introduced, but 

 the fact is, nevertheless, as I state it ; and what is true of the Hawkesbury 

 is true of the Tweed, the Clarence, the Eichmond, the Macleay, the Shoal- 

 haven, and the Clyde ; that is to say, of all our rivers which bring down con- 

 siderable volumes of fresh water from mountain or tableland sources. At 

 this moment the volume of flood-water still coming down the Hawkesbury 

 is such as to colour the water as far as South Head, three miles from the 

 river's southern headland (Baranjo'). Few of the schnapper family can be 

 found within the influence of their fresh water. There are, of course, red 

 bream to be caught in the saline dejjths of Pittwater and Cowan and in 

 the Broadwater of Brisbane Water, but whenever the fresh Avater makes its 

 influence felt there very few of the speridso (the schnapper family) will be 

 found. The Hawkesbury water ceases to be discoloured by fresh water 

 about the neighbourhood of Little Eeef, about 5 miles from Baranjo, and 

 the southerly current cleanses it in the offing, about three miles to the east- 

 ward of that promontory. Within these limits no schnapper will be found, 

 or but very rarely. 1 hjive been informed, on the best authority, that 

 precisely the same condition of things prevails on grounds within the influ- 

 ence of other rivers similar to the Hawkesbury ; and I have no doubt that 

 all along the coast-line the schnapper family have been evicted from their 

 holdings in the neighbourhood of the rivers carrying mud-fresh water, and 

 have been compelled to seek salter water away out to seaward. They will 

 return, of course, to their accustomed haunts as the flood-waters are 

 absorbed by the ocean or evaporated, but not before. 



Eeturning now to my contention (that the capabilities of any given 

 schnapper ground off the coast are measurable by its proximity to a com- 

 mensurate area of deep and undisturbed salt-water inlet), I should like to 

 guard myself from being misunderstood. I know perfectly well what mag- 

 nificent catches of schnapper could at this moment be secured at scores of 

 places far distant from any such inlets as I have described. For example, 

 over the large area of foul ground marked by tlie Solitaries, off the Point 

 Danger cluster of reefs, the Mermaid, Bumbora, and scores of other places. 



