io6 FISHES I HAVE KNOWN 



turned out to be a splendid barracouta, 15 Ibs. in 

 weight, a long, narrow piratical-looking fish, some- 

 what resembling a British pike. To get at the 

 hook was a difficult matter, as the creature's jaws 

 would have closed like a shark's upon anybody's 

 hands. But we managed it, and the fishing .was 

 resumed. 



Evidently we were running through, or were 

 being accompanied by, a shoal of barracoutas, for 

 every fifteen or twenty minutes the rattle sounded, 

 and by ten o'clock we had a score of them on 

 deck, enough for all hands. We found them 

 excellent eating. 



Amongst the chief fresh-water fishes of Australia 

 many of them found alike in Victoria, New South 

 Wales, Queensland, South and West Australia, 

 and in Tasmania is, first, the Murray cod 

 (belonging to the perch family), which abounds 

 in the great river that runs a course of 1,300 miles, 

 averaging, even in summer, a width of 240 feet and 

 a depth of 16 feet. The "cod" is found also in 

 the Darling, the Lachlan, and the Murrumbidgee 

 rivers, which, after flowing respectively 1,200, 700, 

 and 1,400 miles, unite with the Murray before it 

 debouches into Lake Alexandrina, near Adelaide. 



Murray cod are caught either from the banks or 

 from a boat, not, like our perch, with rod, line, and 



