i 9 4 AUSTRALIAN PICTURES. 



burnished gleam of old gold, and when a big one is brought to bank it is 

 something to admire. Judged from the standard of the epicure alone, the 

 black-fish is perhaps the finest of all Australian fresh-water fish, its flesh 

 being snow-white, and of a remarkably fine flavour. The fish is found to 

 greatest perfection in the clear mountain streams that come tumbling down 

 from the Otway ranges, in the southern part of Victoria ; but he is of 

 sluggish habits, and by no means the angler's ideal. When these streams 

 are discoloured by storm water very good fishing may be had through the 

 day ; but if the water is clear the black-fish comes from his hiding-place 

 only when the shadows from the hill-tops begin to deepen over the water. 



In some few rivers widening into the sea whiting are caught at certain 

 periods of the year. The best sea-fishing is perhaps that to be had with 

 the schnapper in Port Phillip Bay, where the fish are plentiful about the 

 lines of reef, and range in weight up to forty pounds. Notwithstanding the 

 merits of some of the native fish, the traditional love for trout has risen 

 superior to every other inclination with the anglers of Victoria and Tasmania. 

 The trout in many places have worked themselves so far up the streams 

 that man can only follow with the greatest difficulty, and the scrub is so 

 thick that an angler would find it hopeless to attempt a cast. With these 

 natural preserves extending for miles, the supply of trout in colonial rivers is 

 inexhaustible. In fly-fishing for trout in the colonies it has been found, 

 however, that the most sacredly observed rules of British angling are entirely 

 useless. Flies that were deadly in the old country are impotent here ; and, 

 as far as the Australian is concerned, all the main tenets of the fly-fisher's 

 faith must be absolutely cast aside, and a new angling creed built upon the 

 basis of colonial insect life and the changed habits of the trout as we know 

 them in Australia. 



Australian vegetation is sometimes considered monotonous in appearance. 

 But this is the criticism of the stranger, and not of the resident. The first 

 idea of the observer is one of uniformity. When the Chinese originally came 

 to Australia, no one could see any difference between the units of the 

 Mongolian horde. Often did robbers of fowl-houses escape punishment from 

 the inability of the prosecutor to identify the men he had chased and lost 

 sight of, and frequently, it is to be feared, was the wrong wearer of the 

 pigtail stoutly sworn to. The yellow skin, the round face and the flat nose 

 conveyed the idea of identity. And to Chinamen all Europeans were alike. 

 The puzzled Celestial could not distinguish between Englishman and German, 

 and still less between individual beef-eaters. 



But Australian vegetation has distinctive features that quickly catch the 

 eye. The eucalypt is always the eucalypt, with its sombre green and its peculiar 

 adjustment of foliage. The leaves do not spread out horizontally, but depend 

 vertically from the boughs, an arrangement which minimises the shade 

 afforded in the daytime, but gives beautiful effects in the gloaming, when the 



