126 THE HEAD OF THE AUSTRALIAN BIGHT 



pounds weight of fish. Australia is a young country, and 

 no great destruction of the fish has yet taken place in any 

 of its waters, but more than one well-founded complaint 

 has been made of wanton waste in this respect. Fish are 

 destroyed wholesale, and used for manure, especially by 

 certain classes of agriculturists, with the result that there 

 is a perceptible diminution of their numbers in some of 

 the most frequented fishing districts. 



During our little voyage round the Great Australian 

 Bight we saw some immense shoals of fish, but my chief 

 interest lying in another direction, I had not much time 

 to devote to studying their habits. I hope to give more 

 attention to Australian fishes in a subsequent chapter 

 treating of the Great Barrier Reef. I do not know from 

 personal observation, but I have heard that the Bight 

 waters are now much used by fishermen. What particular 

 parts of the Bight they frequent I, also, do not know. It 

 must be a dangerous coast for such craft as the fishermen 

 generally use : probably they do not approach the head of 

 the Bight. The fishing therefore must be a deep-sea fishery, 

 for there is a good depth of water (more than fifty fathoms, 

 the length of our sounding-line) two or three miles off all 

 parts of the coast approached by us. 



I can, in concluding this chapter, only add my evidence 

 to that of others who have explored this Bight, by repeat- 

 ing that there does not seem to be a stream of any kind 

 emptying itself into the bay for a distance of several 

 hundred miles, nor a single water-hole, even of the smallest 

 size, on the same extent of coast. Neither did we see 

 any bay or inlet which could be turned into a good 

 harbour, or even into a temporary refuge, for a ship in 

 distress. It seemed to us that a vessel caught by bad 

 weather within the heads of this vast bay would have 

 no chance of living unless she could at once work 

 seawards. 



On the morning of the 25th a strong north-west breeze 

 set in and blew us off the coast. The Swan could not stand 

 before it, and though the weather would not have been 

 heavy for a large vessel, such a tiny craft as ours was in 



