SCHNAPPER AND BLACK BREAM 143 



after the billy has sung its usual tune, I do indeed 

 catch a few of the right sort, though of small size, 

 and towards evening, after a long day of varying 

 fortunes in different spots, we get a half hour of 

 brisk sport, which gives us a dozen bream averag- 

 ing half-a-pound, as well as a tussle with a big 

 jewfish, which is hooked on one of my friend's 

 lines and fouls the other in its efforts to escape, 

 which it eventually effects, taking with it most 

 of their tackle as a memento of the occasion. At 

 first, it was taken for a shark, but its behaviour 

 soon betrays its identity. Large sharks do, how- 

 ever, enter Botany Bay and even find their way 

 into the rivers. In Moreton Bay, where, during 

 a week's stay in Brisbane, I tried some unsuccess- 

 ful fishing down near Eagle Farm, they told me 

 that sharks, attracted no doubt by the city's 

 abattoirs, were so plentiful thereabouts as to de- 

 prive the local supply of convicts of any desire 

 to break free from their island pnson. 



This calm-water fishing provides an agreeable 

 contrast from the rough and tumble of the ocean. 

 Opportunities of fishing in sheltered salt water at 

 home are restricted to a few estuaries. One or 

 two, in Devon and Essex, as well as that of the 

 lovely Mawddach, at Barmouth, I know well. 

 Then there is the bay at Bridlington, where, on 

 the upper lip of Yorkshire's strangely human 

 profile, your boat lies snug from most winds. In 



