30 On the Murray River Cod. 



fishery — the rights of which have more than once nearly fur- 

 nished a casus belli between the two most powerful countries 

 in the world ; or of that monarch of all fresh- water fishes— 

 the noble salmon of the northern hemisphere. 

 ^ About ten days ago I paid a visit to the scene of opera- 

 tions, and I found that the wet weather then prevailing was 

 indeed bringing the experiment to a conclusion, as far as this 

 season was concerned. In high cloud-attracting ranges like 

 those of the Plenty, flying showers are at this time of the year 

 almost incessantly occurring, and these make the surface of 

 the ground so slippery, that, combined with the steepness of 

 the ascents, it is almost impossible for ahorse to keep his feet 

 while drawing a heavy lead. My own old horse, although 

 one of the worthiest and most staunch of his staunch and 

 worthy race, had become so dismayed with the glassy surface 

 of one particularly steep hill that he had twice refused it, 

 and two loads of fine fish had consequently been returned to 

 their native waters. I was not able even to fetch over one 

 load to put into the Yan Yean Reservoir, the most splendid 

 nursery for fish probably in the whole world ; consisting of 

 several miles of water, varying to five and twenty feet deep, 

 and at present almost unoccupied by any kind of fish. 



I desired my man, therefore, to concentrate his energies 

 upon catching a few more, and endeavouring to bring them 

 to town alive. In this he believes that he succeeded, but I 

 fear that the quantity of water in which they were placed 

 was too limited to support life in fish of such a size, and on 

 the morning after arrival they were found to be all dead. 

 I have kept one or two in brine, by way of giving an idea of 

 the character of the fish. I have also a few salted specimens 

 on the table. 



The Murray Eiver Cod is, in fact, a species of perch. It 

 grows to an enormous size, takes a bait of worm, frog, or 

 offal greedily, and is wholesome and palatable even when 

 very large indeed. Mr. Sherwin tells me that he has him- 

 self caught one of 73 lbs. weight, and that his men once 

 assured him they had caught one of 93 Jibs. Mr. Sherwin 

 saw the head, and felt convinced that they were speaking 

 the truth. _ My friend Mr. Foxton tells me that he lived 

 almost entirely upon them for several weeks, and that he has 

 no doubt of their growing to that size. He recollects catch- 

 ing one that gave himself and one of his men a very hard 

 job to drag it home along the grass, with a stick thrust 

 through its gills. In Adelaide they are reported to have 



