THE MURRAY RIVER. 185 







the river Murrumbidgee, and C. flavcscens, caught 

 in the upper waters of the river Macquarie. 

 There is another variety, viz., the silver perch 

 (T/terapon RicJiardsoni\ which, although taken in 

 considerable numbers for the markets with the net, 

 affords good sport to the angler ; for from twenty to 

 forty fine fish, weighing from \ Ib. to 6 Ibs., may 

 easily be secured by one person in a day's fishing, 

 within a few miles of the town of Wellington ; but, 

 as the Murray River is tidal above Wellington, the 

 Australian silver perch is possibly a Labrax 

 lupus, or basse. 



The following extract from a letter written by 

 my son in 1893 may possess some interest for 

 anglers : 



" Heat 107 in the shade, and not a breath of air 

 stirring. This day will long be remembered in the 

 Liverpool Plains district. Horses, cattle, and 

 sheep have been killed in hundreds by sunstroke, 

 and birds found dead in thousands, the excessive 

 heat (more than 150 in the sun) having proved too 

 much for them. 



" I left Mellaby on the evening of the 24th 

 January, about 7 P.M., at sundown, as it was nearly 

 impossible to move in the daytime. It was a 

 moonlight night, and I arrived at Gunnedah, near 

 Tamworth, at 7 A.M. on the 25th, covering a dis- 

 tance of nearly thirty miles. The walk did me no 

 good, and soon as I saw the Peel, or Namoi, river, 

 I felt very much relieved. I camped five days at 

 Gunnedah, and caught a tremendous lot of fish 

 in fact, almost subsisted on damper and cod. 

 Father's 37 Ib. and 36 Ib. pike are infants compared 

 with the Murray cod I brought to bank. I baited 

 with Ib. lump of raw mutton, placed on a large 



