SOME SPECIMENS OF AUSTRALIAN FAUNA AND FLORA. 193 



neck to twice its natural size. A full-sized tiger-snake in the summer 

 season, when it secretes its maximum amount of poison, can inject a dose 

 that is speedily fatal. 



The treatment in snake-bite cases is still in dispute. The Indian 

 doctors reject ammonia, and are followed by the Central Board of Health 

 (Victoria), which has issued notices recommending excision and the use of 

 the ligature. Spirits are given in abundance by some medical men. Walking 

 the sufferer about to avert sleep and coma is a popular procedure. It is 

 the general use of the excision treatment, however, that has reduced the 

 death-rate so wonderfully. If a schoolboy is bitten now he pulls out his 

 knife and excises the bitten part, or he sacrifices the joint of a finger. 

 Keep the poison out of the system, and no harm is possible, and the bitten 

 person now directs his energies to carry out that, instead of wasting his 

 time in running after a doctor, who cannot repair the neglect. 



One sport there is in Australia which can be most heartily enjoyed by 

 all. This is shark-catching. The shark is a worse terror than the snake. 

 Every harbour contains some monsters fourteen, sixteen, and eighteen feet 

 long, and every year there is some tale of horror. The catching of one of 

 these creatures is a popular event, men rejoicing over the destruction of a 

 dreaded enemy. 



To the angler Australian waters offer great attractions. Trout were 

 long ago established in the streams of Tasmania and New Zealand, and 

 within the last few years they have become very plentiful in Victorian rivers. 

 Within twenty miles of Melbourne good trout-fishing may now be had. 

 The fish are slightly more sluggish than in British waters — a fact no doubt 

 accounted for by the warmer climate ; and experts say that at table some- 

 thing is lost in flavour also. The Californian salmon have also been 

 acclimatised with fair success. There are several varieties of perch in the 

 colonies ; but those of the Gippsland rivers, discarding the traditions of their 

 kind all the world over, rise eagerly to the fly, and give splendid sport. To 

 kill fifty a day with the fly, many of them going up to five pounds, is not an 

 uncommon feat. The bream in all the southern rivers and lakes are strong, 

 lusty fellows, that make the reels whistle in a style that is sweetest music 

 to the angler's ear ; but if one wants a bag, he must use double-gutted 

 hooks. Gamer or better fish than these bream no fisherman could desire. 

 The triton of Australian sweet-water streams is the Murray cod ; but he 

 has nothing but his size to recommend him. Along the coast and in the 

 tidal rivers the so-called sea-salmon is another source of gratification to the 

 fly-fisher, for he rises freely, and the largest ones make quite a gallant rush 

 when struck. In the lagoons bordering on the chief of Australian rivers, 

 there are large Murray perch that at certain times bite voraciously. But 

 the handsomest of his kind in Australia is undoubtedly the golden perch, 

 found in the Murray and its tributaries. Its scales have the beautiful 



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