243 



CHAPTER XV. 



EIVEK FISH AND ANGLING. 



Vert little can be said respecting the angling, or 

 river-fishing, in Victoria. Coming, as I did, into this 

 country with the magnificent rivers and lakes of Sweden 

 fx'esh in my mind, nothing struck me more than the 

 insignificance of the rivers in this part of the colony; 

 they are, in fact, little more than creeks — many of them 

 merely a succession of water-holes, during the summer 

 choked with high reeds and bulrushes ; the banks of others 

 stony, steep, and rugged, or grown up with small trees, 

 which overhang tlie stream and nearly meet at the top. 

 I brought all my salmon-tackle out with me from the 

 north : the only use I made of my rod was to cut it up 

 for cleaning and ramrods. My trolling and fly-lines 

 came in handy for tying up wisps of game ; and my 

 scdmon and trout flies soon became the prey of the moth, 

 instead of the fish. A man requires very little fishing- 

 tackle out here, and whatever he wants he can buy in 

 Melbourne. Most of the creeks and water-holes, how- 

 ever, do abound with fish, such as they are ; but the 

 only fresh-water species I ever met with were eel, bream, 

 trout, black-fish, mullet, and herring ; and most of these 

 can live in salt as well as in fresh water. 

 R 2 



